Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the MAA Third Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded today, October 29, 2020. I will now turn the conference over to Tim Argo, Senior Vice President, Finance for MAA.
Thank you, Ashley, and good morning, everyone. This is Tim Argo, Senior Vice President of Finance With me are Eric Bolton, our CEO Al Campbell, our CFO Rob Del Priore, our General Counsel Tom Grimes, our COO and Brad Hill, Executive Vice President and Head of Transactions. Before we begin with our prepared comments this morning, I want to point out that as part of the discussion, company management will be making forward looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from our projections. We encourage you to refer to the forward looking statements section in yesterday's earnings release and our 34 Act filings with the SEC, which describe risk factors that may impact future results.
These reports, along with a copy of today's prepared comments An audio copy of this morning's call will be available on our website. During this call, we will also discuss certain non GAAP financial measures. A presentation of the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures as well as reconciliations of the differences between non GAAP Comparable GAAP measures can be found in our earnings release and supplemental financial data, which are available on the For Investors page of our website at www. At maac.com. I will now turn the call over to Eric.
Thanks, Tim, and appreciate everyone joining us this morning. Results for the Q3 were ahead of our expectations. Cash collections on rents billed in the Q3 were strong And October trends are the same. While we still have a long way to go in capturing full economic recovery, We are encouraged by the early signs of improvement evident in our Q3 results. Leasing traffic was well ahead of prior On a lease over lease basis, new move in rent pricing meaningfully improved as compared to the 2nd quarter.
Overall, net effective rents were 1.8% higher than Q3 of last year and average daily occupancy remained strong at 95 0.6%. As a result, we captured positive sequential revenue growth in each of our markets as compared to the Q2. Demand is strong across our footprint and growing. While we expect new supply levels to remain elevated For the next few quarters, forecast for new deliveries and the trends for permits for new construction suggest moderation in deliveries beginning in the back half of next year and significantly declining into 2022. We continue to make progress On our new development pipeline with construction and scheduled deliveries on track to our pro formas, where we are underway Predevelopment work on several other new development projects that we hope to start next year.
We believe MAA's strategy The rental market has a company well positioned to continue to work through the challenges presented by the current economic slowdown. As the economy begins to recover post COVID, we believe our markets will continue to outperform, capturing employment trends and a demand for housing that will be well above national averages. MAA is well positioned for a coming recovery cycle. To our team of MAA Associates, thank you for your tremendous work and commitment to our mission over the busy summer leasing season. You have again exceeded expectations and as a result have us well positioned as we head into next year.
With that, I'll turn the call over to Tom.
Thank you, Eric, and good morning, everyone. The recovery we saw beginning in May June continued across the portfolio through a busy season. Leasing volume for the quarter was up 11%. This allowed us to improve average daily occupancy from 95 point 4% in the 2nd quarter to 95.6% in the 3rd quarter. In addition to strengthening occupancy by 20 basis points, We were also able to drive new lease pricing improvement.
Effective new lease pricing during the quarter improved 140 basis points from the 2nd quarter To the 3rd, all in place rents on a year over year basis were up 1.8% and turnover for the quarter was down 2.7% versus last year. These improvements were supported by an increase in lead generating marketing spending. We're pleased with resulting improvements in occupancy and new lease pricing mentioned earlier. We saw steady interest in our product upgrade During the Q2, we restarted our interior unit redevelopment program as well as installation of our smart home technology package that includes mobile control of lights, Thermostat and Security as well as leak detection. Year to date, we have installed 22,000 smart home packages and completed 3,300 Interior Unit Upgrades.
As noticed in the supplemental document, collections during the quarter were strong. We've worked diligently to identify and support those who need help because of COVID-nineteen. The number of those seeking assistance has dropped with each month. In April, We have 5,600 residents on the relief plans. The number of participants decreased over time and is just 470 for the October rental assistance Including deferred payments for COVID-nineteen effective resident payment plans referenced in the COVID-nineteen disclosure, We've accounted for 98.8 percent of October build rent.
Leasing volume for October is on track to exceed last year. Effective new lease pricing for October to date is negative 2%, a 30 basis point improvement from the 3rd quarter. Effective blended lease over lease pricing for October month to date is 1.3%, a 50 basis point improvement from the 3rd quarter. A high percentage of our current residents are choosing to stay with us and our resident renewal and retention trends are positive. October, November December Lease over lease renewal rates signed at this time are in the 4.5% to 5.5% range.
In addition to the positive leasing trends, occupancy has also strengthened. Occupancy has improved from a low point of 95.1% in May to 95.7 percent today. Average daily occupancy for the month is 95.6%, which is even with October of last year. 60 day exposure, which is all vacant units plus notices through a 60 day period, has dropped from a high of 9.2% in May To 6.8% in October, this low level of exposure also matches the same time last year and has us well positioned for the slower winter leasing season. I'd like to echo Eric's comments and thank our teams as well.
They served and cared for our residents and our associates well and have grappled with the constantly changing implications of COVID-nineteen. They've also worked diligently to adapt to new business conditions and drive our recovery. I'm proud of them and grateful for their efforts and character.
Brian? Thanks Tom and good morning everyone. 3rd quarter transaction volume picked up from quarter but still remains down significantly year over year and we expect the volume to continue to be slow into next year. Because of the desirability of our markets, we continue to see robust buyer demand for existing assets within our footprint. This strong demand coupled with very attractive debt rates has further compressed cap rates and in some cases is resulting in pricing above pre COVID levels despite lower NOIs.
We continue to expect our best buying opportunities on existing assets to be owned properties in their initial lease up where we believe pressure is likely to continue to build through the winter. With that said, we've only seen a few lease up opportunities come up and pricing trends Our mix. All cash buyers and strong sponsors with established agency relationships remain the most aggressive bidders, footprint to remain at historical lows and perhaps continue to trend lower, likely making acquisitions a smaller contributor to our external growth for some time. As mentioned last quarter, we expect our in house development and our prepurchase platforms to be significant contributors to our external growth going forward and anticipate starting construction on a number of these projects later this year and into next. While cap rates on acquisitions have compressed, Yields on developments remain attractive.
Rents and occupancy are holding up in our markets and despite cost pressure in a couple of line items, Especially lumber, developments continue to underwrite to a positive spread to cap rates on stabilized properties. As shown in our supplemental, we have 6 development projects that are underway and all remain on budget and on time despite working through some minor supply chain issues. Subsequent to quarter end, we started construction on the land parcel in the northern suburb of Austin that we purchased back in January. This 3 50 unit project should begin leasing in the first half of twenty twenty two when we expect leasing conditions to be significantly stronger than they are today. While early reports show 2021 deliveries in line with this year's levels, data in permitting and construction starts show a material decline since March And point to a drop in future deliveries beginning late next year and into 2022, lining up well with the expected delivery of any new development we start.
That's all I have in
the way of prepared comments. So with
that, I'll turn it over to Al.
Okay. Thank you, Brad, and good morning, everyone. We reported core FFO of $1.57 per share The quarter, which was slightly better than our internal expectations as operating performance, corporate overhead costs and interest costs were all better than expected for the quarter. As mentioned earlier, stable occupancy, strong built in effective rents and continued strong collection supported the 3rd quarter performance while improving pricing trends We have established a reserve for bad debts At quarter end sufficient to fully cover uncollected rent from residents not working with us on payment plans as well as for a large portion of the remaining deferral program payments, The collections experience for those have been very good today. As discussed in our release last quarter, we expected some pressure in property operating expenses over the back half of the year.
The majority of the increase for the Q3 was related to growth in real estate taxes, insurance and marketing costs as well as impact on utilities costs from the Double Play Bulk Internet program, all discussed last quarter. A couple of unusual items affecting the quarter were an unexpected increase in Austin tax rates Related to a recent approval by the city to bring forward funding for a light rail system, which was approved during the quarter and actually goes before voters next week. In addition, we did occur about 750,000 of unexpected storm cleanup costs during the Q3, which also contributed to the growth. Our balance sheet remains strong with low leverage and significant capacity from cash and remaining borrowing potential under our line of credit combining for $980,000,000 of capacity. We funded $50,000,000 of development costs during the quarter with the expectation of funding around $260,000,000 for the full year, including the purchase of land parcels for future deals.
As Brad mentioned, the acquisition environment remains challenging, so we expect the majority of investment opportunities over the next few quarters to be in house development Our prepurchase development deals, which both have long term funding commitments and thus we expect our development pipeline to increase over the next few quarters but remain well within the risk tolerance ranges we've always held. We completed a successful bond deal early in the quarter, taking advantage of the low rate environment to issue $50,000,000 of 10 year notes at a coupon rate of 1.7%. This funding was ultimately used to repay some maturities with low prepayment costs, so we don't anticipate additional debt or equity funding needs for the remainder of this year. And finally, as reflected in our release, Recent trends have been encouraging. There's still significant uncertainties remaining, thus we refrain from providing guidance for the remainder of the year.
We plan to revisit the decision as we prepare for our 4th quarter release with the expectation of being able to provide guidance for 2021.
And we'll take our first question from John Kim with BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Good morning. Al, you just mentioned that there are some uncertainties remaining that Basically, it allowed you to refrain from providing guidance for the year. Can you just elaborate on what some of those uncertainties are at this point?
Yes, John. I appreciate that question. I think as we look at whether there's continuation of certain government programs, the recent potential rise in COVID cases in our region, The timing of reopening plans that continue in our region related to these things. And so all these things continue to bring risk. And as we mentioned, I mean, we are very encouraged with But just given that it was 1 quarter remaining in the year, we felt it prudent to refrain from putting that out right now.
We hope to be in and feel like we'll be in position assuming continued stability Ian, in overall marketplace and environment to put full guidance out for 2021.
And with your cost of capital coming down, at least on the debt side, with your recent debt raise of 1.7, how does this change at all as far as you underwrite investments?
I don't know that it changes. I mean, we continue to underwrite in a similar manner. I think what it does is certainly provides the Potential for very strong yields and our gaps and spread capture on some of these new development deals at Brad whether they're in house development or a pre purchase. And so That's why we talked about the remaining capacity we have and also we talked about in the past John that we have a potential on our balance sheet To invest in, it's $0.75 billion before really impacting our leverage level. So I think we would say that and I talked about in the comments this morning, we do expect over the next couple Quarter time development pipeline to grow because that's where the opportunity is.
And as you point out, those 6 yields that we're putting in place compared to that 1.7, That funding cost is very attractive.
Great. Thank you.
We'll take our next question from Nick Joseph with Citi. Please go ahead.
Thanks. It's obviously been a very different operating year thus far.
Yes, Nick, it's Tom. I think what we've Enjoyed thus far frankly is pricing that has been on CECL as you mentioned. Normally Our effective new lease pricing peaks late July. Thus far, it's peaked late August excuse me, late October With steady trends as it goes, I would expect as we move into the Q4 that we would see a seasonal fall off and sort of demand as we usually do and that new lease pricing will drop modestly and that we'll be able to hold on to are in the range of our current level of occupancy. That said, what I think will continue to grow, which are renewal rates that We're effective in the Q3 or just 3.8.
I think we'll see renewal rates continue to improve as we move through the Q4. That's not something that's usual that Seasonal, and that we'll see those in the 4.5% to 5.5% range for the 4th quarter.
Just maybe specifically on DC, it's a little unique relative to the rest of your portfolio. So what are you seeing on the ground there? And are you used in any concession?
I'm sorry, Nick, I missed it, which market you were asking about?
Washington DC, the Greater Tampa area.
Yes, absolutely. Yes. DC is a little bit different. Honestly, occupancy there is strong at 96.4. The pricing has been weak.
And as we go around the horn, we're seeing concession levels in DC proper at 2 months on stabilized Pentagon City, Crystal City, about 2 months Tysons Corner, 2 months Alexandria, pretty similar Maryland and Northern Virginia are a little bit stronger, but both seeing a month free in those markets. So DC is one where we're Stable on occupancy, but pricing growth remains elusive at the moment.
Thank you.
We'll take our next question from Austin Wurschmidt with KeyBanc. Please go ahead.
Thanks everybody. Just curious, you referenced permitting levels declining, fundamentals have been relatively stable and Supply is expected to fall off. I guess, why do you think there hasn't been a pickup in construction activity at this point? Anything on the supply chain challenges, I think you referenced or difficulty getting financing? And then just curious If there's any offsetting items from the pressure on lumber prices that Brad referenced and where you think kind of construction costs are versus pre COVID levels?
Allison, this is Brad. I think certainly in terms of construction costs, we've seen a Strong rise in lumber, but it's been pretty volatile. We've seen a strong run up since COVID. We have seen some relief there in the last 30 days or so, but it's still a pretty big unknown in terms of our construction cost. And we're really not seeing any other line items At the moment that are providing relief or offsetting some of that, it's just not happening at the moment.
In terms of seeing our Not seeing construction tick up based on the permitting data we're seeing. I think Financing is certainly a big part of that. When we started out of COVID, equity was a little nervous. And so 2nd quarter was tough as equity folks backed out of a number of development deals. That's kind of since come back.
And now I think the difficulty is more On the construction side, getting construction loans, that's very, very difficult for folks at the moment. And I think that's Giving us some additional opportunities on our prepurchase platform just based on the way we've structured that. But I think fundamentally, Our markets continue to underwrite well for new development. You've got the certainly the construction cost pressure A bit, but we see some mitigating circumstances there being the lower supply that we're talking about at late 2021 and into 20 The permitting data is showing. So we feel good about anything that we are developing today and putting a shovel on the ground on today.
But I think the financing environment for folks, for a number of folks out there is a little bit more difficult.
How robust is that pipeline of prepurchase opportunities? Has there been any change in pricing there? And then do you think as the transaction market General loosens up that maybe that spurs a little more activity in the construction market?
Perhaps. I mean, in terms of what we're seeing on the prepurchase side, I mean, again, we're evaluating a lot of deals. As equity backed out in the Q2, we had a lot come forward to us. And then as I said, we've got Our ability to provide the debt on our prepurchase platform is kind of a differentiator for us and for folks that A lot of the established developers that we're doing business with, they have the capacity and the ability to go out and get debt. But we just provide a better option for them.
So we're seeing a lot of opportunities there. We've got 2 that we hope to start in the coming quarters and then others that are coming in daily for us to evaluate. So We're optimistic that that platform continues to perform and to provide opportunities for us.
And Austin, this is Eric. I'll add to what Brad is saying that we've got prepurchase opportunities or predevelopment opportunities, I'll say, that we're working, Including both in house and on the prepurchase platform that Brad mentioned, we're working opportunities that we have tied up in Tampa, Raleigh, Denver, Phoenix, we're also actually looking at opportunity in a new market for us of Salt Lake City, Which we hope we can start on next year. So we've got a number of things we're looking at.
Great. Appreciate the detail. Thanks everybody.
We will take our next question from Neil Malkin with Capital and Securities. Please go ahead.
Hey, good morning, guys. Thanks, Warner. First off, congrats to your collections are remarkable as if there is no Pandemic, so you guys are obviously doing something right. First question, I've been hearing more anecdotally about this. I think it's increased with COVID, but are you seeing more inflow to your market from California, New York, Boston, into your Sundal, Phoenix market, I think have you noticed a tick up since April?
Any commentary there How people are choosing to live now that remote work remotely is more accepted and The desire to get away from the sort of densely populated areas has increased.
Sure, Neal. We've seen we didn't see much of that in the second quarter, but it's picked up in the third quarter. And the Most of the majority of our move ins come from within the Sun Belt. So keep in mind that these numbers that I'm going to throw at you Represent a relatively low percentage of our total move ins, but they are growing. So New York move ins from New York is Up double digits, move ins from Massachusetts are up about 9.2%, Pennsylvania 10% In California, almost 8.
And then sort of anecdotally, we spend A good amount of time digging into the Google Analytics stuff. We're also seeing searches From those areas, for instance, like if you pick a search phrase like apartments in Atlanta, that's up 44% over prior year From addresses in the New York area, apartments in Raleigh is up 22% from our searches in the Massachusetts area. So It's not a driver of our business at this point, but there's certainly evidence to suggest that this is a continuing trend.
Yes, I appreciate that. Other question I have is on the single family side. Your markets are great. The one thing is that the home prices are more affordable, but just wondering given the increase in homeownership, mortgage applications, new and existing Home sales, are you seeing any increase in the move out for Home purchases are single family rental, again, over the same sort of like since maybe April or May. Any color there would be great.
Yes. On new home buying, that's remained relatively flat at 19.5% of our move outs. So that has been Steady as it goes and then move outs to single family rentals have stayed well below 6%. Certainly, those They're doing well out there, but we're not seeing them drive an increase in turnover at this point. And we think people are With our demographic, which is majority female, single And not at the phase where they're making those changes, we are not we're just not seeing a ton of shift in that
Okay. I appreciate that. And then just along how many people No answer those surveys. Those percentages you're quoting, I mean, does 10% of the people move out throughout the surveys? Is it 50%?
Like how good of a sample size
Is that It's roughly 100%. I mean, we don't say roughly just because I hadn't checked the number So in the last couple of days, but that is we that's not a survey that's sent after the fact. That is a When you offer a notice to us, that's a required field for them to fill out and capture. So it is That's where we're getting that information. It is a part of our transaction for accepting the notice.
Thank you, guys.
And we'll take our next question from Nick Yulico with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning, everyone. Just a question on renewals. It's impressive you guys have been able to keep your renewals close to 5% in terms of the growth. How do you guys feel about still being able to stay in that 4% to 5% range in this environment?
I'm pretty confident in it. And just to reset a little bit, in Q3, the renewals came down to 3.8% And now we're seeing them move back in the 4.5% 5%. Honestly, our 2 or 3 year average there is probably 6%. So we're still a little below that. We feel quite confident in our ability to continue to maintain those rates as long as we continue to do our job and create value For our residents, we feel like renewals is a place where we have the most pricing power and that hasn't changed through this process.
So, we feel confident in our ability to continue that.
And I would add, Nick, that I think People are probably a little residents are a little bit more sticky right now than perhaps they've ever been, just as a consequence of COVID and The challenges of moving have always been there, but with COVID on the landscape, I think it probably helps in that regard as well. So We continue to feel that now is the time to as Tom says, if we're doing a great job on service, which I know we are at our locations, It makes sense to continue to push that to the extent that we monitor how much move out we're creating as a consequence of that and Ready to back off and if we need to, but at this point, no signs that we need to do that.
Okay. Thanks, Eric. I think Sumit Sharma has a question as well.
Thanks Nick. Guys, just really quickly, we've been listening to a lot of developers in your markets, talk about an increase in investment. So maybe you could walk us through some of the markets where you're seeing the most supply growth. And importantly, and this might be a long term question, but still very interested, how concerned are you on shadow supply growth, let's say, from older office Buildings or retail redevelopments.
Well, this is Brad.
I think in terms of the shadow I don't think we're seeing a lot of that in our markets at the moment. I think what we certainly see is the repurposing Retail spaces into apartments, but the retail getting torn down. I think we're doing that at our West Glen property In Denver, where we're tearing down an older underutilized retail space to put in apartments, I think we'll see some of that, but I don't know that we're going to see we're certainly not seeing right now repurposing of hotels or anything like that within Our markets at the moment. But in terms of supply that we're seeing increases in, let me get my
I think in terms of looking forward on that, we're in the process of really going through our study. Brad's team does an unbelievable job. They're really diving into the markets and understanding those and what the implications are for us for 2021. So we're doing our study of the market. We're Our study of the radius of our market and exactly how it would affect us and we'll have more on that in Q4.
But what we are showing Really is a fall off in supply in the back half of year for a range of reasons that were mentioned earlier.
So, Madhu, we'll yield to anyone else.
I'm sorry, we didn't understand that.
I'm sorry, we just said all done. Thank you so much.
Great. Thank you. Appreciate your question.
And we'll take our next question from Alex Kalmus with Zelman and Associates. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for taking my question. So obviously, you have pretty strong top line growth compared to some of the peers that were seeing in the urban markets. Do you think the success figure to weight success reasoning, would it be more Because you're in the suburban footprint of your markets or is this a market selection?
Well, I think that if you look at our portfolio, I think that it really is it starts with the overall Sunbelt Footprint, obviously, but where we are seeing stronger performance occur is particularly in some of our mid tier markets where the Supply pressures at the moment are not quite as significant. So some of our mid tier Component of our strategy, mid tier market component of our footprint is certainly helpful at this point. And then if you look at some market level, we have a higher percent of our portfolio is suburban in non urban core. And that orientation of the portfolio, I think, is also a big contributor to our ability to sort of weather these downturns in a better fashion.
Got it. Thank you. And turning to the smart home units, I'm assuming you're installing those on turns, But there is some lease over lease declines in the new lease. So should we think of this $25 premium as a mitigant to the declines or Is there some sort of AB testing that drives that $25,000,000 premium?
Yes. So we're We're doing those on turns and occupied. Really the majority, we just got back on it In the Q3 and most of those units got completed late Q3. So when we have we do not when we do it on an Occupied unit, we do not immediately put that price increase on it resets at the renewal. And then on new leases, We rent them with it and that is a bump, but It is not a material bump in the 3rd quarter lease over lease new lease numbers.
Got it.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
And we can take our next question from Rob Stevenson with Janney. Please go ahead.
Good morning, guys. Tom, when you adjust for urban versus suburban or just looking at sort of the suburban assets, etcetera, Any differential in operating performance between price point within the various markets mean, in other words, is a $2 square foot Suburban, 2 bedroom, leasing any differently than $1.75 Any difference of price point between sort of same product, Same market or submarket? And then any difference in demand between larger and smaller floor plates like the 850 Square 2 bedroom units versus the 1100 Square Foot 2 Bedroom units, any color there?
Yes. No, consistently across the board, I mean, you've touched on Urban is our Suburban is running a little stronger than urban. And then also A or higher price point It's running a little weaker than B. B is strong. So B suburban is the best and that plays out whether you're in the suburban or in the urban areas.
On the unit types, it is we're majority 1 and 2 bedrooms. And in terms of our current exposure level and the current lease level growth for 1s and 2s, they're incredibly consistent. Ones are slightly ahead of 2, but it's by a negligible amount. The floor plan that is a little less popular right now is our efficiencies. They're running closer to 95% occupied on an average basis with more like 8% exposure, and Not terribly surprising, but to put that in perspective, that's efficiencies are 4% of our exposure And 1s and 2s are like 88%.
So the one little less favorable 4 plan that we have right now It's just 4% exposure.
And then what about bigger versus smaller within the same number of bedrooms? Like that large Are the large two bedrooms now getting more attention for people looking for that extra space than the smaller two bedrooms, People looking for that extra 150, 200 Square Feet?
I think that's honestly skewed a little bit by the AB because our B Assets and suburban assets tend to be a little bit larger. So if we looked at the numbers, yes, that would be the case. But I think that has to do with more The construction type and just sort of differences between our B product and our suburban product versus our A product and our urban product.
Okay. And then the one other one for me is, are you guys seeing any markets that appear to be deteriorating on you noticeably Operationally, at this point, where you expect as you head into 2021, that things are going to continue to get weaker, Adjusting for whatever happens with the economy, but where today it looks weaker than it did last month?
Not a dramatic fall off. I think Houston and D. C. We're watching carefully as well as Orlando. But those are more sort of like bumping along than falling off materially.
Okay. Thanks guys.
Thank you, Ram.
And we'll take our next question from John Pawlowski with Green Street. Please go ahead.
Hey, thanks for the time. Good morning. Tom, maybe just following up Market question, you touched about lower supply in some of this or maybe it was Eric, lower supply in some of the secondary markets. In the quarter sequentially, your smaller markets really outperformed your larger markets. Curious if there was an outsized lift From the Double Play package or if it's just true organic demand versus supply differences versus the larger markets?
No, I mean, double play is really spread across the portfolio tight fairly evenly. So no, there is not It is not that Double Play is not adversely or positively Affecting one market or the other on the revenue or expense side.
Okay. And then Al, last question for me. You talked about Austin property taxes. Nashville in recent months has increased Property taxes as well. Are there any other markets you're hearing chatter across the Sunbelt where just property taxes to fund the growth
It's certainly a topical conversation right now. I wouldn't say that there's a formal Areas that we're seeing right now that will be the next one will be a significant increase. Certainly going into the year, Nashville and Austin both were unexpected and were significant increases and A question that a lot of municipalities are dealing with budget issues now. And so we're certainly watching that and monitoring. I think it's not just us in our region, it's nationwide in many markets.
I would say this year you're not seeing valuation relief yet because people are looking backwards maybe as we move into next year you get bit of valuation relief and then the millage rates, they're still in question because of all these issues that they've been as pilots are dealing with. So we're watching that closely, John. That's a long answer to say. Nothing Certainly top of mind right now.
Okay. Thank you.
And we'll take our next question from Rick Skidmore with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thank you. Just a Follow-up, perhaps I missed it, but what's driving the 2% decline in new lease rate in October? Is that just in the markets because it seems like you've talked about strong demand and good occupancy just and lower turnover. So I'm just trying to understand what's happening there.
No, I mean, I think it's just a difference in timing and seasonality. So, from on an effective basis or when New lease rates that moved in October, they're actually up sequentially. New leases signed, if are looking at the sublet at the new leases signed, if you are looking at the supplemental are down slightly, Which is what I mentioned earlier, I think we'll see normal seasonal trends on pricing as we head into November December, the odd thing is that new lease pricing climbed honestly from May to October and usually it peaks in July 4 effective. And then the other thing that will be different for us in the Q4 in terms of pricing is that you're going to see renewal rates Move back up into the 4.5% 5% range, whereas normally, they might be coming down from 7% to 6% or 5.5 And a normal seasonal pattern.
Thank you. And then just a follow-up. Al, you talked about the new development line and being within the historical range. Can you just frame for us what that historical range should be as some of these projects that you have Are moving off being completed in 2021, what sort of scale we might be thinking, whether it's number of projects, number of units, Total capital, however you might frame that new supply pipeline?
I think what I was trying
to indicate was we've talked about our range of Tolerance we would have for our pipeline overall given
our balance sheet and typically we've said 4% to 5% of our balance sheet, of course, on $18,000,000,000 balance sheet, That's a significant number. And so I think we would see we're certainly I made a comment because the opportunities that Brad mentioned will be there in the development Pre purchase as well as in house, the yields are very good relative to financial costs. We'll certainly see that increase. And we have the room in our balance sheet to use that for a while to fund those, maintaining and I put the ranges On the long term, we certainly want to protect and maintain our balance sheet ratios where they are. So 4% to 5%, that gives you $800,000,000 or so, a little more that we could work with.
And in the long term, we'll probably see that come back down into where we are now over a long period of time.
Thank you very much.
We'll go next to Amanda Switzer with Baird. Please go ahead.
Great. Thanks. Good morning, guys. I wanted to ask on your renovation project, and it was certainly nice to see kind of the slight acceleration in the rent premium achieved for those units. Are there any markets today where you pause renovations due to more challenging fundamentals?
And then how are you thinking about the potential pipeline for
We brought back about 80% of our units and 80% of the properties where we're doing a redevelopment. And we do AB testing there on a regular basis, and we did not feel in the results that we're seeing on the ground that it made sense to bring Redevelopment back in Houston or Orlando at this time. We'll monitor those and those are markets we feel good about long term. But one of the nice things about the redevelopment project, the way we do it is we can be relatively nimble in response to on the ground market conditions And just it made sense to pause those in those markets.
And Amanda, we are looking at our plans at the moment and would expect to see another productive year on redevelopment. And then also we've got a number More extensive repositioning efforts and projects that we will likely kick off next year as well.
Okay. That's helpful. And then just a quick clarification on some of your earlier migration comments. Are you still seeing movements from outside the Sunbelt remain in kind of that 8% to 10% historical range you've talked about? Or is it now running ahead of that with the growth you were talking about?
It's about 11% or 12% now.
Great. That's it for me. Thanks for the time.
All right. Thank you.
We'll take the next question from Rich Anderson with SMBC. Please go ahead.
Thanks. Good morning, everyone. Hey, Tom, I want to not get too nitty gritty here, but for the October move ins of up 4.8% On renewals and those that were signed up 5.8%. That's basically the foreshadow you're talking about in terms of Renewals going up, I assume as we kind of venture into the Q4 here, but is that 100 basis points spread, move in versus signed, a typical spread? Or is it particularly high or low Right now versus other years?
No, it's particularly hot right now. Usually there's not much spread at all because our renewals are pretty consistent. Because renewals came down in terms of what our renewal offers were came down in June July, Those that then moved in 60 days out are lower. And then as our markets sort of stabilized and the picture became clearer on the impact of the economy in our market and we were seeing people stay and felt like we had pricing power, Then we began to move back to more of our normal practice. So normally there's a pretty tight delta between those two numbers, but we're just on the incline At this point, and I would think as we stabilize, then you'll begin to see that delta tighten, but the overall renewal rates will Me at a pretty high level at that point.
Right. Okay. Right. I guess I was getting signed confused with offers, but okay, that makes sense. Thanks.
And then, the second question maybe big picture for Eric. You're talking a lot about Urban versus urban, but I bet your urban portfolio is doing better than Northern Cities or Coastal Cities. Maybe that's an obvious statement. And I'm wondering if you think is this a red state, blue state thing? I mean, do your not to get political because that's That's the intention, but do your typical residents have perhaps a far less sensitivity factor when it comes to COVID-nineteen and so they're More inclined to move around and do what they have to do to get into their apartment?
Or is that hard to sort of gauge So you don't really know. My guess is you're in Trump country there that, that would be the case. But again, not a political conversation, but I'm wondering just How people think about this kind of stuff and if it's playing a role in your business?
Well, Rich, there are 2 questions there. One is, you're right, we are not Nearly the pressure on our urban product that you're seeing on urban product in San Francisco and New York. Our turnover Move outs from our urban locations are down this year versus last year. So where we see pressure on urban performance More as a function of supply coming into the market because more often than not at the moment that supply is higher in price point and more urban oriented. But yes, our Urban's product is holding up relatively pretty well.
The other part of your question As you suggest, it's really difficult to answer. I think that largely what we are Seeing benefit of is states and cities and A broad region that just tends to be viewed as more, if you will, Pro Business is bringing employers are bringing jobs to this region of the country. Employers are bringing In relocating jobs out of some of these higher cost areas of the country, this is clearly a more affordable region of the country to live in, More moderate weather challenges and just I think it has a lot of appeal. And I think that the behaviors that I mean, we're seeing these markets Starting to open up perhaps a little quicker and in a robust more robust way that we see has seen take place in other regions of the country. And I don't know whether that's sort of a red blue thing or whether it's just more A different mindset that's hard to really attribute to political issues or anything of that nature.
I just think that It is what it is and these cities and these states are going to be much more inclined to just Move forward with business in this environment and we're seeing some benefit of that.
Great answer, Eric. Thanks. Appreciate everybody. That's all for me.
Thanks. Thanks, Rich.
We'll take our next question from Jon Petersen with Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Great. Thanks. Good morning, guys. Curious if you're seeing any new capital come into your markets in terms of competition for acquisitions or funding new developments. Thinking, you're hearing from a lot of private guys that have basically shunned office and retail and coastal apartments, but obviously fundamentals are doing well in your markets.
Just curious if you're seeing any change in kind of new capital that's chasing your property type in your geographies?
John, this is Brad. Certainly, we're seeing a lot of capital in our market. Everybody that was interested in multifamily Certainly is still interested in multifamily and certainly in the Q3 we've seen a lot of the folks that have been on the sidelines kind of come back into the And start looking for acquisitions, which that's one of the things that's driving and impacting pricing is there's just not a lot of deals and a lot of capital looking for it. I'd say one thing that we have seen that's changed and has been more pronounced is a number of investors that generally have targeted the Northeast have come into our market. And I think the way they look at some of our assets on a price per pound basis is a little bit different than what traditional Southeast investors do and I think that is also driving pricing a bit, but we've seen a lot more participation from Northeast Investors in our markets.
And that's really the only change that we've seen. I think international capital is down a bit in our But that's more than made up for by other capital sources. And then I'd say that the private REITs are certainly very strong. They had a few months of low capital raising, which that's back up. And so those folks are back aggressively in the market.
Okay. All right. That's helpful. That's all for me. Thank you.
We'll go Next to Zach Silverberg with Mizuho. Please go ahead.
So my first one is about some comments you made earlier on Salt Lake City. I'm just curious what other markets you consider entering and Would your plan be to enter in some sort of scale or via opportunistic one offs and what do IRRs and cap rates look like 1st year course in Bell Markets?
No. I mean, Salt Lake is the only market that new market that we have Intentionally targeted and we have been working on that opportunity for some time. We've liked that market for quite some time. The market has some challenges to get into, but we think we've got a way to get there and we actually got Hopefully, several other opportunities behind the one we're currently working that would enable us Over time to scale up there in a sufficient fashion, but we see the sort of underwriting dynamics and pricing there, very similar to how we see in a number of our other Sunbelt markets And a lot of buyer interest, that's a market that continues to track just great job growth, great quality of life, very affordable, Employers like the market a lot, so we really like the long term dynamics there. And it's just we've been Disciplined about looking for the right way to get there and get into the market.
And we've got a prepurchase Opportunity that Brad and his team have been working on and hopefully more to follow.
Got it. Appreciate that. And just one more for me. You sort of touched upon this in the prepared remarks and the press release that you've worked with residents to stay in their homes. Can you quantify the amount of tenants who have requested assistance and how has that trended since the start of the pandemic?
And where does that sort of show up in your financials?
Yes. So the I mean, it shows up in the financials on the Amount of rent outstanding, but we started with in April, we had 5,006 100 people on a rental assistance plan. In May, we had 5,100. In June, it was down to 2,000, July 5, 'twenty nine, and then we've stayed below 500 through October. So it's continued to remain Steady and trend down and the results of that are in our numbers.
So those are what we've really found. We took some risk with working with these folks, but even for a jaded landlord, it's been impressive to see how well Those folks have lived up to their obligation. We gave them a little bit of time and they've come through very strong and they've paid us.
Got you. And just one quick follow-up on Salt Lake. Could you provide any sort of cap rate or IRR color if you guys have that Hey, Desmango.
What I'd tell you, we're still in our predevelopment work on that and more to come on that As we get that buttoned up and which we hope to do early next year.
Awesome. Thank you, guys.
There appears to be no further questions at this time. I'll turn the call back over to you, Mr. Argo, for any additional or closing remarks.
Thank you, Ashley. I appreciate everybody joining us on the call and please reach out if you have any more questions. Thanks.