Good day everyone, and thank you all for joining us to discuss Equity LifeStyle Properties' first quarter 2026 results. Our featured speakers today are Marguerite Nader, our Vice Chairman and CEO, Patrick Waite, our President and COO, and Paul Seavey, our Executive Vice President and CFO. In advance of today's call, management released earnings. Today's call will consist of opening remarks and a question and answer session with management relating to the company's earnings release. For those who would like to participate in the question and answer session, management asks that you limit yourself to one question so everyone who would like to participate has ample opportunity. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. Certain matters discussed during this conference call may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Our forward-looking statements are subject to certain economic risks and uncertainties.
The company assumes no obligation to update or supplement any statements that become untrue because of subsequent events. In addition, during today's call, we will discuss non-GAAP financial measures as defined by SEC Regulation G. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the comparable GAAP financial measures are included in our earnings release, our supplemental information, and our historical SEC filings. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Marguerite Nader, our Vice Chairman and CEO.
Good morning, and thank you for joining us today. I am pleased to report the results for the first quarter of 2026. We continued our long-term record of strong core operations and have maintained our full year normalized FFO guidance of $3.17 per share. Our manufactured housing portfolio represents approximately 60% of our total revenue, and these properties are currently 94% occupied. Our communities distinguish themselves by their ability to sustain high occupancy levels over extended periods. This resilience is driven by the composition of our resident base, as homeowners represent 97% of our MH portfolio. Homeownership promotes long-term residency and supports our strong operating performance. The high concentration of homeowners is a key driver of our predictable recurring cash flow. Residents are invested in their communities, which encourages stability, long tenure, and strong neighborhood engagement.
Within our RV portfolio, the increase in annual revenue reflects continued strength across our customer base. Our annual customers stay in park models, resort cottages, and RVs, with many families viewing our properties as an integral part of their traditions and family history. This loyalty supports sustained long-term revenue. Turning to demand, our offerings across our portfolio are unique. We offer great long-term experiences in sought-after locations at a fraction of the cost of alternatives. We are engaging with our customers through traditional email campaigns, social media outreach, and digital advertising. For the quarter, our websites attracted a combined 1.3 million unique visitors and generated 94,000 online leads, reflecting strong engagement. The drivers of the lead generation are from our RV annual lease campaign and trip planning lead generation. Our social media strategy seeks to engage both customers and prospects in a wide variety of platforms.
We have over 2.4 million fans and followers across several social media networks. Over the past 10 years, we have grown our social media fans and followers by an average of 25% annually. During periods of uncertainty, it's important to recognize the stability of our business and the fundamentals that support continued growth. I will highlight three of the key components of our success. First, our unique business model drives sustained long-term outperformance. Over the past 25 years, ELS has outperformed the REIT industry NOI growth by 150 basis points. The stability through economic cycles is a hallmark of our success. Second, the demand drivers are the support for continued long-term outperformance. Our core customers are baby boomers, and 10,000 people per day turn 65 through 2030. Thereafter, the Gen X generation maintains the demographic tailwind for the 15-year period following the baby boomers.
The runway remains long, supported by favorable migration patterns. Finally, our capital structure is an advantage for us. Our balance sheet is in terrific shape with an average term to maturity of more than 7 years. 17% of our debt is fully amortizing and not subject to refinance risk. Our debt maturity schedule through 2028 shows only 14% of our debt coming due, compared to the REIT average of 35%. We have delivered an 18% compounded annual dividend growth rate over a 20-year period. ELS offers a rare combination of strong income growth, stability, and demographic tailwinds backed by a well-managed balance sheet. I want to thank our team for a great start of the year. They've done an excellent job supporting our snowbird guests and will soon welcome our customers for the upcoming summer season.
I will now turn it over to Patrick to provide more details about property operations.
Thanks, Marguerite. We're in the middle of our seasonal shift with our snowbird customers heading back to northern climates and our northern properties gearing up for the summer season. As we wrap up the busy season in the Sun Belt, I'd like to provide an update on our key Sun Belt MH markets and the value found in our communities.
Florida is our largest market, accounting for about 50% of our core MH revenue. In our top markets of Tampa, St. Pete, and Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, the average single-family home price ranges from $350,000 to over $500,000. Our communities in these markets offer a compelling value, with average new home prices of $100,000 and resale home prices averaging about $50,000. We continue our strategy to expand existing communities in areas of high demand and have added more than 1,100 MH sites in Florida since 2020. In our core Arizona market of Phoenix, Mesa, single-family homes average more than $400,000, while new homes in our communities average $100,000, and resale homes average $70,000. We are actively selling homes in our expansion projects in Arizona, where new inventory is selling at prices typically ranging from $110,000-$180,000. We have 500 completed expansion sites to support further occupancy growth.
In our Northern California markets around San Francisco and San Jose, homes average over $1.3 million, while the Southern California markets of Los Angeles and San Diego are about $900,000-$1 million. Given high demand and the strong value proposition for our California properties, the portfolio is 99% occupied, and home sales are typically resales of resident homes in the range of $100,000 and higher. In each of these markets, residents receive an exceptional housing value, along with desirable amenities, including swimming pools, clubhouses, pickleball courts, and more. The active lifestyle and social engagement offered at our communities is why homeowners stay with us for an average of 10 years. Leveraging feedback from our customers, our property operation team establishes comprehensive budget plans for each property. Our on-site team members prioritize occupancy and revenue growth while thoughtfully managing expenses such as seasonal staffing, overtime, and discretionary spending.
We're able to adjust to changes in the business to meet high customer expectations while managing expenses scaled to property operations. At the same time, we are investing in new technology across our business, customer touch points like online payments, customer surveys and follow-up, and operational efficiencies like online check-in, staffing plans, and expense management. This continued innovation allows us to increase operational capacity while improving the customer experience. Importantly, these efficiencies give our on-site team members more time to make connections with our customers and create memorable experiences. In our RV business, the long-term annuals are the core of our stable occupancy. Through April, we have seen improvements in attrition trends compared to last year, and we are looking forward to the summer sales season.
Annual sites account for 75% of our core RV revenue, and most of our annual RV customers own a park model or RV with site improvements and sell their unit in place when they choose to leave the campground. Annual marina revenues experienced occupancy headwinds year-over-year from delays for permits and longer construction timelines for projects related to previous storms. We expect these construction projects to be completed late in 2026 and into 2027, which will then contribute to occupancy gains as we build back that business. We're looking forward to launching the 12th annual 100 Days of Camping social media campaign this summer, which runs from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend. We see strong engagement with this campaign year after year, earning over 45 million views across social media last summer.
Our teams will be following along as customers post photos online, helping each guest make memories and reinforcing the legacy of our brand. Now I'll turn it over to Paul.
Thanks, Patrick, and good morning, everyone. I will review our first quarter 2026 results and provide an overview of our second quarter and full year 2026 guidance. First quarter normalized FFO was $0.84 per share, in line with our guidance. Core portfolio NOI growth of 4.9% compared to prior year was slightly ahead of our expectations for the quarter. Core community-based rental income increased 5.7% for the quarter compared to the first quarter 2025. The increase in rental income is primarily the result of noted increases to renewing residents and market rent paid by new residents. Occupied sites increased 54 during the first quarter, resulting in occupancy of 93.9%. During the first quarter, we sold 228 new and used homes. The occupancy comparison to first quarter 2025 is impacted by expansion sites added during the past 12 months.
Adjusted for expansion sites, occupancy would be 94.4%, in line with first quarter 2025. First quarter core resort and marina-based rental income outperformed our budget by 10 basis points in the quarter. Rent growth from RV and marina annuals increased 4.2% for the quarter compared to prior year, slightly below expectations for the quarter. Marina performance was impacted by delays in slip restoration efforts. Seasonal and transient rent was 70 basis points higher than guidance as a result of higher-than-expected seasonal rent in the quarter. For the first quarter, the net contribution from our total membership business, which consists of annual subscription and upgrade revenues offset by sales and marketing expenses, was $17.6 million, an increase of 13.7% compared to the prior year. Membership dues revenue growth is primarily rate-driven.
Approximately 1,200 upgrade subscriptions were originated in the quarter from new and existing members. Core utility and other income increased by 0.4% compared to first quarter 2025. Our utility income recovery percentage was 50.4%, about 280 basis points higher than first quarter 2025. First quarter core operating expenses increased 1.8% compared to the same period in 2025. We renewed our property and casualty insurance programs April 1st, and the premium decrease year-over-year was approximately 18%. We're pleased with the result, which reflects no change in our property insurance program coverage. Core property operating revenues increased 3.7%, while core property operating expenses increased 1.8%, resulting in growth in core NOI before property management of 4.9%. Our non-core properties contributed $3 million in the quarter, slightly higher than our expectation.
Property management and corporate expenses were $28.6 million in the first quarter of 2026, 3.4% lower than 2025. The press release and supplemental package provide an overview of 2026 second quarter and full year earnings guidance. The following remarks are intended to provide context for our current estimate of future results. All growth rate ranges and revenue and expense projections are qualified by the risk factors included in our press release and supplemental package. Our guidance for 2026 full year normalized FFO is $3.17 per share at the midpoint of our guidance range of $3.12-$3.22. We project core property operating income growth of 5.7% at the midpoint of our range of 5.2%-6.2%.
We project the non-core properties will generate between $5.7 million and $9.7 million of NOI during 2026. Our property management and G&A expense guidance range is $119 million-$125 million. In the core portfolio, we project the following full year growth rate ranges: 4%-5% for core revenues, 2.2%-3.2% for core expenses, and 5.2%-6.2% for core NOI. Full year guidance assumes core MH rent growth in the range of 5.1%-6.1%. Full year guidance for combined RV and marina rent growth is 2%-3%.
Annual RV and marina rent represents approximately 75% of the full year RV and marina rent, and we expect 4.8% growth in rental income from annuals at the midpoint of our guidance range. As I mentioned, the change in expectations for full year growth in annuals compared to our prior guidance is attributed to our marina portfolio, which is experiencing longer than anticipated delays in restoration of slips. Our full year expense growth assumption includes the impact of our April 1st insurance renewal for the rest of 2026. Our second quarter guidance assumes normalized FFO per share in the range of $0.69-$0.75. Core property operating income growth is projected to be in the range of 4.8%-5.4% for the second quarter.
Second quarter growth in MH rent is 5.6% at the midpoint of our guidance range. We project second quarter annual RV and marina rent growth to be approximately 5.1% at the midpoint of our guidance range. Our guidance assumes second quarter seasonal and transient RV revenues perform in line with our current reservation pacing. We've made no changes to prior guidance for seasonal and transient rent in the third and fourth quarters. Second quarter growth in core property operating expenses is projected to be in the range of 3.9%-4.5% and includes the impact of our April first insurance renewal. I'll now provide some comments on our balance sheet and the financing market. Our balance sheet is insulated from refinance and rate risk and is well positioned to execute on capital allocation opportunities.
Our floating rate exposure is limited to balances on our line of credit. Our debt to EBITDAre is 4.5x , and interest coverage is 5.6x . We have access to approximately $1.2 billion of capital from our combined line of credit and ATM programs. We continue to place high importance on balance sheet flexibility, and we believe we have multiple sources of capital available to us. Current secured debt terms vary depending on many factors, including lender, borrower sponsor, and asset type and quality. Current ten-year loans are quoted between 5.25% and 6.25%, 60%-75% loan to value, and 1.4x-1.6x debt service coverage. We continue to see solid interest from life companies and GSEs to lend for ten-year terms.
High quality, age-qualified MH assets continue to command best financing terms. Now we would like to open it up for questions.
Thank you to ask a question please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question please press star one one again. Please stand by while we combine the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from Jamie Feldman of Wells Fargo. Your line is open.
Great. Thanks for taking my question. I wanted to dig a little deeper into the insurance renewal and then just the impact on the expense savings and the new guidance. Can you talk about what you had in the original guidance for the insurance renewal, how that compares to the down 18%, and then just maybe some of the moving pieces around the expense savings and the guidance going forward?
Sure, Jamie. I think that we've guided to full year core expense growth. I think I mentioned this in the January call. It includes a premium to CPI. It is offset by some anticipated savings in a few line items. Just as a refresher for everybody, roughly two-thirds of our expenses are comprised of utilities, payroll, and repairs and maintenance.
Those three line items, we expect year-over-year growth for the remainder of 2026 to be approximately 4.7%. The CPI reported in April was almost 100 basis points higher than the prior month, and we've made some expense adjustments, including utility expenses, and R&M both, in anticipation of potential energy and supply cost increases. With respect to the insurance, we had an assumption in our budget, which was informed based on what we understood was happening in the market at the time that we finalized our budget in January. We made the adjustment to reflect the 18% reduction in premium, and all of that is rolled into the guidance that we provided.
Are you able to say what was in the initial number for the insurance? I'm just trying to figure out how much better it was than what you thought.
Yeah. Generally, we don't go into that level of detail, Jamie.
Okay. All right. Thank you.
Thanks.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Jana Galan of Bank of America Securities. Your line is open.
Thank you, and good morning.
Good morning, Jana.
Following up on the revised seasonal and transient top-line guide, can you just talk a little bit more about booking visibility and kind of reservation pacing and, I don't know, any impacts with kind of the weather?
Sure. With respect to the seasonal business and just as we think about advance reservation pacing, certainly we talked a lot in the past about our transient business and not great visibility beyond the coming 90 days as our first point of kind of visibility. As I mentioned, we've updated our guidance for transient to reflect what we're seeing in the system right now in terms of reservation pacing. Just a reminder, roughly 60% of the revenue comes from bookings that are within 7- 10 days of arrival.
Thank you. I also very much appreciate the update on the financing environment. I was just wondering if you can maybe comment on any changes in the transaction environment or any more product coming to market potentially on the RV side.
Sure. Thanks, Jana. Yeah. As you know, our assets are really in demand from an investor standpoint. It's not a secret that the model that we have is compelling. We find times in our history that we have limited amount of quality assets for sale, and we're in that time right now. As an industry, we're experiencing a low volume of activity. The ownership remains highly fragmented, but our team is very engaged with owners as they consider their next step in the future. I think that with respect to your question on whether on the RV side, I think there probably is more opportunities to buy transient RV parks than there were previously. Not necessarily something we are interested in.
Great. Thank you, Marguerite. Thanks, Paul.
Thanks, Jana.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Eric Wolfe of Citi. Your line is open.
Hey, thanks. For the Northeast annual RV sites, can you just talk through the trends that you're seeing there? I think last year, around this time, you started seeing some higher turnover at 20 properties or so. Does that seem to be normalizing? Is occupancy ahead, behind? Maybe just talk through sort of, for those Northeast properties, the annual trends you're seeing thus far.
Yeah, sure. It's Patrick. We are seeing trends that are more consistent with our historical experience, as opposed to the elevated attrition that we saw at the same time last year. As we made our way through the quarter, sequentially month after month, we were able to achieve a higher level of sales. We feel like we have consistent demand in the RV annual space. Just as a reminder, in the back half of 2025, we added 500 annuals. We kind of rolled out of that period into a period of steady demand and we're past that elevated attrition that you referenced from last year.
Got it. That's helpful. Maybe just going back to the marina restoration. I guess it sounds like based on your original guidance, you expected maybe some slips to come back, I guess, this quarter, but now it's sort of getting pushed to late 2026 or even early 2027. I guess first, I just wanted to confirm that was right. Maybe just discuss, I guess it sounds like maybe over the last two months, you've seen construction delays or permitting delays, just sort of what happened and what the magnitude of it is. I guess I calculated like $1.5 million, but maybe just let us know if that's incorrect.
Yeah. Let me speak to what's actually going on at the property. It's three properties. They were impacted by the hurricane season in 2024. I think your timeline's pretty close to our thinking. I would have expected that we would have been on coming into this year and starting to build occupancies, projects were completed through the current year. The reality is the delays are caught in the neighborhood of 9-12 months, and the expectation of progress being completed and building back occupancy late in 2026 and into 2027. I think is a good way to think about it.
Okay. Thank you.
Thanks, Eric.
Thank you. Our next question comes from John Kim of BMO Capital Markets. Your line is open.
Thank you. On manufactured housing occupancy, it continued to trend down. It did end the quarter on a high note, but I'm wondering, how you see that playing out for the rest of the year, excluding the impact of expansions?
Yeah. As I mentioned in the call, occupancy ended the quarter at 93.9%. That's up 10 basis points from year-end on the 54 sites that we filled during the quarter with no expansion sites added. We essentially have an assumption in the budget for modest uptick in occupancy for the rest of the year. It's not quite the volume of growth that we saw in the first quarter in the future three quarters. Anticipate the slight increase during the rest of the year.
Okay. Can I ask a second question?
Sure.
The Thousand Trails, you talked about, I think a new rate strategy, just given that it's gone up 12% year-over-year despite fewer numbers. Is this something that you're going to carry on through for the near future and potentially increase rates further at the expense of memberships?
Yeah. I think, if you look at their supplemental, as you point out, you see that increase in revenue. I think if you add all the line items together, you get to about an 8% growth. That is primarily because we changed that product, and we have a higher annual dues rate. The term is, I think, two to four years and with costs ranging from $2,000-$4,000. The members want to have that extra time at the properties, take advantage of discounts on cabins, et cetera. Right now that price is, I think, properly priced. As we head into 2027, we would look to what increases we would think that we should do in terms of that product.
The product as a whole has been very successful for our customers, our members wanting to get that upgrade and pay the additional dues.
Great. Thank you.
Thanks, John.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Haendel St. Juste of Mizuho Securities. Your line is open.
Hey there. Thanks for taking the question. I wanted to go back to the OpEx guide for a bit. Again, I guess I understand that you don't want to get into the specific pieces of how much things like insurance are causing an adjustment for the guide, but I guess I was more curious on the oil side. Obviously, the cost of oil has picked up quite a bit this year, and I'm curious how you can hedge the future volatility in the price of oil or what's contemplated in the guide and potentially how that can be hedged. Any color on what's being contemplated, how it can be offset, and how to think about that in the broader context of the prior guidance versus the new guide. Thanks.
Sure. Our process to update guidance considered the impact of the roughly 15% increase in oil price since December. We reviewed the pricing structure used by the utility providers in states where we operate. These include regulated, frankly, primarily regulated and some deregulated markets. Utility providers in certain states like Florida do have pricing structures with variability clauses that allow them to recapture some portion of their costs if the regulated rates limit their ability to recapture price increases. As we looked at all of that we increased our utility expense assumptions for the remainder of 2026.
Okay, fair enough. Appreciate that, I suppose. If I could squeeze in one just on the revised guide for the non-core portfolio income, maybe some color on what's driving that and how to be thinking about modeling that. Is that fair just to perhaps ratably load that through the model the rest of the year? Thanks.
Yeah, I think it relates to just improved expectations. A couple of the properties in that portfolio, primarily RV locations. You may recall that there are a number of properties that are in the non-core portfolio that were previously impacted by storms that were not operational. as they're recovering, we noticed some upside in the performance and the expected contribution, and that was the basis for the adjustment.
Got it. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Brad Heffern of RBC Capital Markets. Your line is open.
Yeah. Hey, everybody. Thanks. Historically, you've talked about weather being the primary swing factor on RV transient, and there hasn't really been an obvious impact from gas price movements. Obviously, with the war, we're seeing a much more dramatic and quick change in prices. Is there anything in your data that suggests that it might be having a negative impact on transient demand?
Yeah. We've looked, certainly over many years, at gas prices and the effect on RV transient. Certainly, gas prices have made headline news over the past several weeks. Year-over-year, I think we've seen a $0.90 increase in the price of gas, not unlike what we saw during times in the pandemic. We kind of think of it in terms of just what's the incremental cost to our customer. If you consider a three-night trip, our average customer is going about 90 mi to our locations. That higher gas price results in an increase of about $25, $30 for the trip. If that's three nights, you're talking about $10 per night.
If you think about other vacation alternatives, the overall cost of RVing is really significantly lower and offers the flexibility of really being able to control your spend and also be able to control your environment. I think at the current rates, net, I think it can be a positive. Certainly, if you're talking about rates that are significantly higher or you're talking about supply issues, then you get into kind of maybe different conversations. I think where we're at right now, our customers are excited to get out there and use their RV.
Okay. Got it. Thanks for that. The Canadian tariffs kind of went into effect more than a year ago, so we should be starting to lap some of the comps on the boycotts. Are you seeing any evidence that those Canadian customers might be coming back or any other color that you can give around that?
Yeah. We're just out of the summer season and the impact of the Canadians rolled through those results. I think it's early to call what we're going to see for the summer season, and certainly we're in some unpredictable times. We'll provide updates as we start to get greater visibility into the next couple of quarters.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Michael Goldsmith of UBS. Your line is open.
Good morning. Thanks a lot for taking my question. Maybe just to follow up on the seasonal and transient. Seems like the first quarter number was in line with the initial guidance. You're kind of guiding to the second quarter of down 9%, but then it's implied that the back half is up about 3%. I was just wondering how you're thinking about that 3% growth in seasonal and transient in the back half. If that split, is that more fourth quarter weighted than third quarter? Then in the guidance, are you baking in kind of an acceleration in that fourth quarter as you lap some of that disruption from the Canadian customer? Thanks.
Sure. Broadly, Michael, as you said, the base rental income growth rate, it does reflect a 50 basis point decline to prior guidance. Half of that, as we talked about, is the marina. The remainder is heavily weighted to our seasonal expectation for the second quarter. That's mainly in April. Just to provide that color. As we think about the remainder of the year, as I said during my opening remarks, we've left the assumptions for third and fourth quarters in place as they were budgeted as we don't have great visibility into that activity.
As they were originally budgeted, does that bake in an assumption that you'd get back some of the Canadian customers that didn't come in fourth quarter of 2025?
We have an assumption in the fourth quarter of a recovery of some of that. I wouldn't qualify it to Canadian customers. I think that as we've talked, the impact on the seasonal business provides an opportunity for us to backfill, excuse me, occupancy from customers, whether they're Canadian or domestic customers.
Got it. Then just as my follow-up question on the home sale volumes and price. It looks like new sale volumes were down and the price per home was down, and then similarly on the used homes, I think they were also at least the price was down. Presumably that's a mix shift, but can you provide a little bit more color in what's going on in the home sale market?
Yeah, sure. We continue to see steady demand. The beginning of the quarter was impacted by weather. It was winter, and that even bled down through many of the Southeast markets. As we worked our way through the quarter, we saw steady demand and feel good about the demand profile. Just with respect to the new and used sales, one, I wouldn't read too much into, in any particular quarter, the home sale price, because to your point, it has a lot to do with mix. Directionally, the price per on the new was up and the price per on the used was down. But all of that is with the backdrop of, we feel like we have steady demand in the MH portfolio.
Thank you very much. Good luck in the second quarter.
Thanks, Michael.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Wesley Golladay of Baird. Your line is open.
Hi, everyone. Can you unpack the seasonal and domestic transient guests for the first quarter? Was that positive growth ex-Canadian?
Yes. Overall, it was growth. It included the Canadian customer in the revenue, of course, but just to be clear, the marginal improvement was from customers that we saw booking seasonal stays during.
Could you unpack the domestic traveler? Was that positive? Has that customer segment bottomed, and do you have a positive outlook for that segment going forward?
The domestic seasonal customer is what you're asking. Sorry, I'm not sure.
Yeah. Sorry. The domestic, seasonal, and transient segment. I'm trying to figure out how much of that was weighed down, or the outlook this year, maybe Canadian negative, but U.S. domestic and transient guests positive. Just trying to unpack if that segment is bottoming out at the moment.
Well, I guess I'll say two things. One, as Patrick mentioned, we've ended our winter season and we're heading into our northern season. That's a very different customer and different potential there. Maybe with respect to the seasonal, as we just think about the future, the coming winter season next year, maybe it'd be helpful to walk through some historical context on the reservation patterns for the winter season revenue. In the past, we would end our winter season with approximately 50% of the anticipated future winter season revenues booked. Those advanced reservations allowed customers to reserve the site that they wanted at the property and didn't carry penalties for cancellation.
Following a fair amount of booking and cancellation activity after the first quarter and into the summer months, by the end of any winter season, roughly a third of the revenue that was generated during the winter season came from those advanced bookings. Start the season with 50% of the revenue booked, end with about a third after all the cancellations. As we think about it now, there's been a meaningful disruption to the seasonal business, we think, that we've talked about as a result of the domestic and the Canadian relations. We look at it in terms of engagement, and as we sit here right now, 50% of the in-place guests have reserved space for next year, and that compares to 47% of the in-place guests last year.
Okay. Got that. Thank you for that. One more, I guess, bigger picture question. With the rise of artificial intelligence and the way people are searching for product these days, are you noticing any change in the way you source your residents or seasonal and transient guests?
Certainly, our marketing department is very focused on using artificial intelligence inside of our search options, understanding and appreciating how customers are searching for our offerings. It is no longer a simple campgrounds in Maine. It's a much more robust search, and we're focused on making certain that once that search is put in place and once the person indicates what exactly they're looking for, we are able to have our communities and our resorts come up at the top of the list. A lot of that is a function of our websites have been around for a really long time, and they have a really high number of reviews, which is very helpful for that algorithm.
Yeah. Great. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Jason Wayne of Barclays. Your line is open.
Thank you. Good morning.
Good morning.
Looking at the RV and marina annual guidance cut. That was driven primarily by transients and marinas. Can you just give any color on how rent growth and occupancy trends in RV annual, specifically in the first quarter, and what your assumptions are for the rest of the year on RV annual, specifically?
Well, the RV annual, when we reported in October, we provided our guide for rate growth, that was 5.1%, and that's been consistent. We anticipate that to be consistent for 2026. We're seeing no change from that. In terms of occupancy, we had roughly 100 sites that we were down in the first quarter, and we anticipate, as Patrick was talking, recovery of those sites and addition of annual sites throughout the year.
Got it. It looks like there were some other sites added this quarter. Just curious where those new sites were added, if that was all in the markets you mentioned earlier, and if there's any that are expected to come online this year in those markets and maybe outside them?
We didn't add sites in the quarter. We did have some shifting in our reporting, so a couple of things in terms of just the presentation of sites in our earnings release, if that's what you're referring to. To provide greater visibility and clarity on the composition of sites in our JV portfolio, we reported those a bit differently and showed those in the categories with footnote disclosure that they relate to the JVs. We also, annually, at the end of the first quarter, we true up our seasonal site count for the number of seasonal customers that we had during the winter season. That adjustment was made, and with that adjustment, the transient site count was offset or adjusted accordingly.
All right. Got it. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from David Segall of Green Street. Your line is open.
Hey, thank you. Just to follow up on the site count changes, what do you think are the prospects for reclassifying those sites that were converted from, or were reclassified from seasonal transient back to seasonal later this year, or is that more of a 2027 event?
Yeah. Our practice is to update that at the end of the first quarter based on what we saw during the winter season. We would anticipate doing that a year from now.
Great. Thank you. Appreciate the color on the local home prices that you gave earlier in the call. I'm curious what your thoughts are on the impact of stagnating or lowering prices in the local for-sale market would be on the MH values and ability to increase rents. Just kind of implicitly, what do you expect the spread between stick-built homes in your markets to MH home values to remain stable, or do you think it would narrow?
Yeah. I guess, first I'd put into context the value proposition that I addressed in my prepared remarks is very attractive and is a wide band to the next mark on single family. We have a strong value proposition, even if there was some moderation in single-family home pricing, and we've seen that historically that we've had consistent occupancy and consistent home sales, even in up cycles and more moderate cycles. I think that's our reasonable expectation as we look forward to 2026. I'd also highlight that those key markets that I highlighted have a very consistent demand profile, including in single family in the mid-tier across each one of those sub-markets.
Great. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thanks.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Peter Abramowitz of Deutsche Bank. Your line is open.
Yes. Thank you for taking the question. Just wondering, could you give us kind of a refresher on general demographics of your transient customer base? I think age, average income levels would be helpful. I know you talked about the impact of oil prices on decisions around transient travel. Just generally, what are the demographics of that customer base? Then also, maybe some of the broader macro factors like job growth, anything we should be watching for or thinking about as it relates to results through the rest of the year?
I guess the demographics of our transient customer really varies by region. In the northern part of the country, the Northeast and the Midwest, it's really family camping. You're talking about a 40- or 50-year-old couple with a couple of children, and they come out on a weekend basis. They're generally employed, full-time workers, and just have the time when they have time off from their jobs to be able to camp. Then very differently, in the South and Southwest, in Florida, Arizona, et cetera, our transient camper tends to be a retired couple who tends to go and stay in a few different locations and has just more time on their hands to be able to work their way through our properties and through our system.
Okay. That's helpful. I appreciate that. Then just one more on the scope of the work of the marinas. I think you mentioned it was three properties specifically. Can you share where they are? Then is there any sort of offsetting revenue pickup in 2027, or is this just work to get the properties back online and back on the trajectory that you previously expected?
Yeah. The properties are all in Florida. Three properties are in Florida, and yes, certainly there is a revenue pickup in 2027. There's upside in 2027 for these assets, because there is a high demand for these slips to be brought online. They'll be filled, and then we'll be recognizing that revenue in 2027.
All right. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Our next question comes from Adam Kramer of Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.
Hey, good morning, guys. Thanks for the time. Just wanted to ask about capital allocation priorities here. I think in particular, development seems like a really interesting opportunity, given, I think, what you've talked about for yields historically versus what acquisition yields would be today. Just wondering, again, general capital allocation priorities or stack ranking them, and then I think with development in particular, is there an ability or an interest in sort of flexing that beyond, I think the sort of 700-1,000 sites you've talked about on an annual basis?
Yeah, sure. On the development front, over the last three years, we've brought online a little over 2,000 sites. That's been a mix of MH and RV, highly focused on our core markets in the Sun Belt. This year, it looks to be in the range of 200-400 sites. That deceleration is not an indication of our desire to continue developing our expansion sites, but it's just a cadence of projects as they're working their way through an approval process, and then getting a shovel in the ground. Those yields, we continue to expect to be in the high single digits. The properties that we're focused on for the upcoming year are in Florida, and then we have another one out on the West Coast.
Great. Thanks. Maybe switching gears, a little more of a bigger picture question. Just on the policy side of things, I think the ROAD to Housing Act has a number of elements related to manufactured housing in it. I think the permanent chassis requirement getting removed is sort of a big one, but also some financing elements, push for factory-built housing, a number of others. Just wondering, again, sort of open-ended question here, maybe the company's thoughts, just on the act and what it might mean for the industry and then potential read-throughs to ELS specifically.
I mean, overall, I would say that it would be helpful to the industry for the points that you just highlighted. Specifically to ELS, some variability in manufactured housing setup may provide an opportunity for us. I think there's broader opportunities for the manufacturers. We are closely tracking what is the progress on that legislation, and just given the current state of affairs in D.C., that bill has stalled for all practical purposes. I think there's still a desire to move it forward, but we'll continue to monitor. We can provide updates on future calls as we get some more insight.
Great. Thanks for the time.
Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Steve Sakwa of Evercore ISI. Your line is open.
Yeah, thanks. Good morning. A lot of questions have been asked and answered. I just wanted to kind of circle back on the MH occupancy point. I guess whether you look at the data on page nine or the data on page seven , slightly different numbers, but kind of paints the same sort of broad picture, which is the site count has gone up year-over-year, but the number of occupied sites is actually down when you look at the ending March 31st, 2026 versus March 31st, 2025. I think Patrick mentioned you guys added about 500 expansion sites maybe over the course of the past year. Maybe just talk about that lease-up process, and are you still doing expansions at the same pace given that the occupancy has kind of been trailing down, or how do you sort of think about that development lease-up pace and future builds?
Yeah. Well, just high level on the occupancy front, just a reminder that as we made our way through 2024 and 2025, the hurricane impact from the 2024 season was basically 300 occupied sites. We're working through building that back. With respect to our expansions, we've completed some very solid recent expansions, in particular in Florida and Arizona. The lease-up rates there, I would expect to be anywhere in the range of 20-30 sites, potentially as high as 40 sites. That's really going to depend on macro factors and then what's going on in the individual submarkets. If you're leasing up in this space somewhere between the neighborhood of 20-40 sites on an annual basis, that's a good run rate. These expansions are part of very solid core properties and solid submarkets.
They'll continue to contribute to occupancy over the next couple of years to reach stabilization. Then, as I mentioned a little earlier, we have a desire to continue those types of projects. We have others in the pipeline, and we can talk about those more as we approach 2027 and 2028.
Just as a quick follow-up, Patrick, is it your expectation that occupancy, given the hurricanes and the expansions, would you expect occupancy, whether it's an average or a spot to be bottoming in 2026 and then moving higher in 2027 or 2028? Or could you envision where occupancy is even down next year as you're kind of working through the pace of that and then it kind of starts to take off in 2028?
I would expect that we're going to increase occupancy in the MH portfolio on a consistent basis over time. That doesn't mean that we're not going to have an external catalyst that's a disruption to the business model temporarily, but we have a long history of continuing to increase the occupancy, and even backfilling the impacts of the hurricanes that I referenced show a very steady demand profile.
Great. That's it from me. Thanks.
Thanks, Steve.
Thank you. We have a follow-up from Eric Wolfe of Citi. Your line is open.
Hey, thanks for taking these other questions. If I look at your guidance changes in the supplemental, it adds up to almost $0.02 of positive benefit. I'm just wondering what's offsetting that.
Sure. Eric, we have maintained full-year normalized FFO per share guidance, though there are a lot of changes, as you mentioned. You can see the items that increased. The main offset in the updated guidance relates to assumptions for our income from home sales and ancillary operations.
Got it. That's helpful. You mentioned some adjustments to April seasonal. Was that just, I guess, the number of customers that typically extend their stays? You just saw a little bit less extending their stays this year. Do you think that was perhaps due to sort of the greater shift towards domestic customers versus Canadian, or is there some other factor around that?
A lot of what we see, Eric, in April is really weather related, where people are saying, okay, it's nice enough up north, we can head up north, and no longer need to seek refuge in Florida from the cold. So that's kind of what we saw. You see that same effect in October, where some people stay longer if you have a longer summer, September and October, and we just saw people returning back north quicker than anticipated.
Got it. That's helpful. Thank you.
Thanks, Eric.
Thank you. We have a follow-up from Brad Heffern of RBC. Your line is open.
Yeah. Thanks for taking the follow-up. On the RV site count, what is the financial impact of a seasonal site moving to transient? I'm sure obviously it could just get booked again as a seasonal next winter, but if it stays a transient site, is there a meaningful negative financial impact from that?
It really depends on how that site was performing. If you just think about the annual conversions to transient, our average annual is about $7,000-$8,000, and your average transient customer is about $81 per night. It depends how many nights, and both the same with the seasonal, how many nights are occupied as to whether or not you have a financial impact to that conversion.
Okay. The shift of those, whatever it was, 1,200-1,400 sites, is that meaningful in some way, or is it really just moving change from one pocket to the other?
Well, it's already embedded in our guidance.
Right.
It's simply a reflection of what we experienced during the winter season in terms of the occupancy of those sites.
Okay. Thank you.
Thanks.
Thanks, Brad.
Thank you. We have a follow-up from Jamie Feldman of Wells Fargo. Your line is open.
Great. Thank you. I had very strict instructions from Adam to ask one question, so I'm back. Good job, man.
We appreciate it, Jamie. Appreciate it.
It's still hard. I've had a couple people ask me to clarify, so I apologize if you guys already answered this or provided it, but the 50 basis point cut to RV and marina-based rental income, was that all from the slips? If it wasn't all the slips, how do you break it out between RV and marina?
Well, it's interesting because there's a 50 basis points decline in RV and marina in total, and there's a 50 basis points decline in RV and marina annual. To be clear, the RV and marina annual 50 basis points decline, it's attributed to the marina portfolio. It's not the RV portfolio, it's the marina portfolio. I think somebody earlier in the call said they calculated roughly $1.5 million, and that's correct.
Okay. All right. Thank you for that. Last, the 300 sites lost in the hurricane, how many of those are back online? Because it seems like it comes up every quarter, the occupancy change or fewer leased sites.
Yeah.
Occupied sites, I should say.
Yeah. We're in the process of putting homes on those sites, and I put it in the context of this, it's an additional 300 vacant sites in a portfolio of 70,000 sites where we have a run rate practice of purchasing new homes to increase occupancy. It's not like the 300 go down, then we fill them 1 through 300 and then move on. They're part of the ongoing investment of inventory in the broader market. Obviously, they were hurricane impacted, so they're in Florida. I don't have the exact number, but we've filled a substantial number with new homes, and we'll continue through that process to reach full occupancy. The properties that were impacted by those hurricanes are pinnacle assets where the demand profile is very solid, and I would expect the occupancy to rebuild consistently.
Okay. Finally, I think I know the answer, but you do have some portfolios out there for sale internationally. What are your latest thoughts on sticking to your knitting and keeping the type of assets you have? Or is there any yield IRR that would be compelling enough to go international at this point or into new property types or something outside of your core business?
I think you were right with how you started, which is you know what the answer is going to be. We are focused on growing our business inside the United States, and we will continue to do that.
In terms of new property types?
Well, certainly more MH, more RVs to new property types, nothing that we're looking at right now.
Okay. All right. Great. Thank you.
Thank you, Jamie.
Thank you. Since we have no further questions on the line, I'd like to turn it back over to Marguerite Nader for closing remarks.
Thanks for taking the time today to listen to our call. We look forward to updating you on our second quarter earnings.
This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.