Public Storage

into the question queue. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Ryan Burke. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you, Rob. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us for our second quarter 2024 earnings call. I'm here with Joe Russell and Tom Boyle. Before we begin, we want to remind you that certain matters discussed during this call may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These forward-looking statements are subject to certain economic risks and uncertainties. All forward-looking statements speak only as of today, July 31st, 2024, and we assume no obligation to update, revise, or supplement statements that become untrue because of subsequent events. A reconciliation to GAAP of the non-GAAP financial measures we provide on this call is included in our earnings release. You can find our press release, supplement report, SEC reports, and an audio replay of this conference call on our website, publicstorage.com. We do ask that you initially limit yourselves to two questions. Of course, after that, feel free to jump in queue with more. With that, I'll turn the call over to Joe.

Thank you, Ryan, and thank you all for joining us today. Tom and I will walk you through our recent performance and updated views. Then we'll open it up for Q&A. Our second quarter performance exceeded our expectations regarding existing customer behavior and occupancy levels, but fell short on rents charged to new move-in customers. Move-in rents were down 14% with competitive pricing dynamics in many markets. That compares to down 6% in our original forecast. Accordingly, we have adjusted our guidance ranges to reflect more competitive market move-in rent conditions for the remainder of the year, which Tom will cover in a moment. Overall, we are encouraged by positive momentum in our business, including new customer activity supported by a healthy consumer with a sustained need for more space at home and the effectiveness of our broad-based customer acquisition strategies. Occupancy trends outpacing expectations with positive net move-ins year to date. Our in-place customers are behaving well with good payment patterns, reduced vacate activity on a year-over-year basis, and strong length of stays. Our high-growth non-same-store pool, which comprises 542 properties and 22% of total portfolio square footage, is leasing up quickly with NOI growing nearly 50% during the second quarter. Several markets within our portfolio are seeing month-over-month revenue growth improvement, waning development of new competitive supply, which will be supportive to accelerating operating fundamentals. And the acquisition market, while still quiet, is showing some signs of broader activity. Based on these favorable trends and our strong capital position, we also repurchased $200 million in public storage common shares during the quarter. We continue to view 2024 as a year of stabilization across our portfolio. We are excited about our trajectory over the near, medium, and long term. Now Tom will provide additional detail.