National Storage Affiliates Trust

And the quarter played out pretty much exactly as we expected. We acquired 12 stores valued at approximately $93 million. Gap rates on our first quarter acquisitions averaged 5.3%. Meanwhile, our focus on realizing that embedded growth in our 2021 acquisition assets contributed to our first quarter results and to our healthy upward revision to guidance. Subsequent to quarter end, we closed with one of our JV partners, on the acquisition of a high quality seven property portfolio strategically located in the Houston MSA and valued at $208 million. This is a strategy we've discussed as enabling us to acquire high quality assets and grow even in a low cap rate environment. As a reminder, we earn acquisition and management fees as well as an incentive promote on our JV acquisitions, which boosts the return on MSA's invested capital. This makes acquisitions within JVs an attractive option when faced with a low cap rate environment and is yet another benefit of our diversified capital platform. Overall, I'll say it again, it's a great time to be in self-storage as the results surpass even our own expectations and fundamentals remain strong. Our exceptional first quarter results and continued momentum into the second quarter furthered our conviction to meaningfully increase full-year guidance which Brandon will address in his comments. I'll now turn the call over to Dave to provide color on what we're seeing on the ground and with new supply. Dave?

Thanks, Tammy. The positive momentum that we experienced in the fourth quarter continued into the first quarter and has only gotten stronger as we progress into the spring leasing season. We continue to be pleasantly surprised at the strength and durability of consumer demand and our ability to continue to work our revenue management practices. We ended the first quarter with same-store occupancy up 140 basis points over the prior year. Our occupancy is following normal seasonal trends and declined by 20 basis points from year-end to 94.8% at the end of the first quarter. Occupancy at the end of April was 95.1%, consistent with the expected seasonal increase as we enter the spring leasing season. We were able to hold discounting and concessions well below historical averages at 2.2% of revenue. We continue to have great success with our revenue management strategies. Our street rates averaged 22% higher in the first quarter this year compared to a year earlier. Our rent roll-up in the first quarter remained positive at about 1%. The fact that it remained positive in the non-peak season when it would normally see a rent roll-down is impressive. As we enter our peak season, the rent roll-up has now widened to slightly above 5% at the end of April. Our contract rates continue to grow and we're up about 14% for the first quarter. As the year-over-year gap in occupancy narrows, we continue to offset it with steadily growing contract rates. Turning to new supply, we continue to see improvement. Rising interest rates and increased inflationary pressures are driving up construction costs and further restraining new supply. The percentage of our stores having a new competitor in a three- and five-mile radius declined a couple hundred basis points, to 27% and 45%, respectively. I'll now turn the call over to Brandon to discuss financial results and balance sheet activity.

Thank you, Dave. Yesterday afternoon, we reported core FFO per share of 68 cents for the first quarter of 2022, which represents an increase of 39% over the prior year period. Impressive year-over-year growth was driven by a combination of record acquisition volume over the past four quarters and double-digit same-store growth, both facilitated by our differentiated pro structure, and supported by our focus on Sunbelt and secondary markets. Same-store NOI increased by 22.2% in the first quarter of a prior year, driven by a 16.6% revenue increase, combined with a 3.1% increase in property operating expenses. Same-store occupancy averaged 94.7% during the quarter, an increase of 250 basis points compared to last year. Regarding OpEx, same-store growth came in better than expected due primarily to a 50 basis point decrease in payroll, a 2.1% decrease in marketing costs, and just 3% growth in property taxes compared to first quarter 2021. A decline in payroll was partially attributed to a longer time to backfill open positions and also reduced store hours on the margin. Now, moving on to guidance. Results for the first quarter were better than expected, including our non-same store pool performing ahead of expectations and the JV acquisition that we announced further contributes to core FFO per share growth. All in all, there were a handful of drivers that lead to the meaningful increase to our guidance. We expect higher growth levels in the first half of the year as comps become more challenging in the second half. Taking all of this into consideration, we update full year 2022 guidance with key highlights as follows. Core FFO per share of $2.80 to $2.85, which at the midpoint REPRESENTS A 4% INCREASE FROM OUR PREVIOUS GUIDANCE AND 25% GROWTH OVER PRIOR YEAR. SAME STORE REVENUE GROWTH OF 11 TO 13%, A 325 BASIS POINT INCREASE FROM PREVIOUS GUIDANCE AT THE MIDPOINT, AND NOI GROWTH OF 14 TO 16%, A 500 BASIS POINT INCREASE FROM PREVIOUS GUIDANCE. ADDITIONAL ASSUMPTIONS ARE OUTLINED IN THE EARNINGS RELEASE. TURNING TO THE BALANCE SHEET, WHERE WE REMAIN STRONGLY POSITIONED, DURING THE QUARTER, we issued $17 million of OP equity in conjunction with acquisitions and closed the remaining $125 million tranche of our previously announced private placement. Subsequent to quarter end, Coral Bond Rating Agency upgraded the credit rating of our operating partnership to BBB Plus from BBB Flat, reflective of our conservative balance sheet, multiple options for capital, and strength of the self-storage sector. At quarter end, our leverage was 5.7 times net debt to EBITDA, toward the low end of our targeted range of 5.5 to 6.5 times. We are very comfortable with our balance sheet, with no maturities through 2022, just 18% of our principal debt subject to variable rate exposure, and $185 million of availability on the revolver currently. We're committed to maintaining a conservative leverage profile and healthy access to multiple sources of capital. Thanks again for joining our call today. Let's now turn it back to the operator to take your questions. Operator?