Q2 2026 American Homes 4 Rent Earnings Call
Speaker #1: Greetings, and welcome to the AMH second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. The question and answer session will follow the formal presentation.
Operator: Greetings, welcome to the AMH's Q2 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to Nicholas Fromm, Vice President of Investor Relations. Thank you, Nick. You may begin.
Operator: Greetings, welcome to the AMH's Q2 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star, zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to Nick Fromm, Vice President of Investor Relations. Thank you, Nick. You may begin.
Speaker #1: If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.
Speaker #1: I'll now turn the conference over to Nick Fromm, Vice President of Investor Relations. Thank you, Nick. You may begin.
Speaker #2: Good morning, and thank you for joining us for our second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. With me today are Bryan Smith, Chief Executive Officer; Chris Lau, Chief Financial Officer; and Lincoln Palmer, Chief Operating Officer.
Nicholas Fromm: Good morning, thank you for joining us for our Q2 2026 earnings conference call. With me today are Bryan Smith, Chief Executive Officer, Chris Lau, Chief Financial Officer, and Lincoln Palmer, Chief Operating Officer. Please be advised that this call may include forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this conference call are forward-looking statements that are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in these statements. These risks and other factors that could adversely affect our business and future results are described in our press releases and in our filings with the SEC. All forward-looking statements speak only as of today, 31 July 2026.
Nick Fromm: Good morning, thank you for joining us for our Q2 2026 earnings conference call. With me today are Bryan Smith, Chief Executive Officer, Chris Lau, Chief Financial Officer, and Lincoln Palmer, Chief Operating Officer. Please be advised that this call may include forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this conference call are forward-looking statements that are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in these statements. These risks and other factors that could adversely affect our business and future results are described in our press releases and in our filings with the SEC. All forward-looking statements speak only as of today, 31 July 2026.
Speaker #2: Please be advised that this call may include forward-looking statements. All statements, other than statements of historical fact included in this conference call, are forward-looking statements that are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in these statements.
Speaker #2: These risks and other factors that could adversely affect our business and future results are described in our press releases and in our filings with the SEC.
Speaker #2: All forward-looking statements speak only as of today, July 31, 2026. We assume no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by law.
Nicholas Fromm: We assume no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by law. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures is included in our earnings press release and supplemental information package. As a note, our operating and financial results, including GAAP and non-GAAP measures, are fully detailed in our earnings release and supplemental information package. You can find these documents as well as SEC reports and the audio webcast replay of this conference call on our website at www.amh.com. With that, I will turn the call over to our CEO, Bryan Smith.
Nick Fromm: We assume no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by law. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures is included in our earnings press release and supplemental information package. As a note, our operating and financial results, including GAAP and non-GAAP measures, are fully detailed in our earnings release and supplemental information package. You can find these documents as well as SEC reports and the audio webcast replay of this conference call on our website at www.amh.com. With that, I will turn the call over to our CEO, Bryan Smith.
Speaker #2: A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures is included in our earnings press release and supplemental information package. As a note, our operating and financial results, including GAAP and non-GAAP measures, are fully detailed in our earnings release and supplemental information package.
Speaker #2: You can find these documents, as well as SEC reports and the audio webcast replay of this conference call, on our website at www.amh.com. With that, I will turn the call over to our CEO, Bryan Smith.
Speaker #3: Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Before we get into our results, I would like to briefly touch on the Road to Housing Act, which went into law last month following overwhelming bipartisan support.
Bryan Smith: Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Before we get into our results, I would like to briefly touch on the ROAD to Housing Act, which went into law last month following overwhelming bipartisan support. This law reflects a thoughtful approach by policymakers to address housing affordability and allows the industry to move forward with greater certainty. It recognizes the important role that single-family rentals play in the broader housing ecosystem and reinforces a number of aspects of our value proposition. First, it recognizes the role of new home construction in helping to address housing affordability. This highlights the importance of our in-house development program that continues to add newly built, high-quality homes across the country. Second, by grandfathering in existing single-family rental homes, the legislation acknowledges that professionally managed rental housing is a critical element of our country's housing landscape.
Bryan Smith: Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Before we get into our results, I would like to briefly touch on the ROAD to Housing Act, which went into law last month following overwhelming bipartisan support. This law reflects a thoughtful approach by policymakers to address housing affordability and allows the industry to move forward with greater certainty. It recognizes the important role that single-family rentals play in the broader housing ecosystem and reinforces a number of aspects of our value proposition. First, it recognizes the role of new home construction in helping to address housing affordability. This highlights the importance of our in-house development program that continues to add newly built, high-quality homes across the country. Second, by grandfathering in existing single-family rental homes, the legislation acknowledges that professionally managed rental housing is a critical element of our country's housing landscape.
Speaker #3: This law reflects a thoughtful approach by policymakers to address housing affordability, and allows the industry to move forward with greater certainty. It recognizes the important role that single-family rentals play in the broader housing ecosystem, and reinforces a number of aspects of our value proposition.
Speaker #3: First, it recognizes the role of new home construction in helping to address housing affordability. This highlights the importance of our in-house development program that continues to add newly built, high-quality homes across the country.
Speaker #3: Second, by grandfathering in existing single-family rental homes, the legislation acknowledges that professionally managed rental housing is a critical element of our country's housing landscape.
Speaker #3: Millions of families will continue to have the opportunity to live in high-quality homes and neighborhoods without the burdens of homeownership. And third, the legislation preserves the ability to consolidate existing rental portfolios.
Bryan Smith: Millions of families will continue to have the opportunity to live in high-quality homes and neighborhoods without the burdens of homeownership. Third, the legislation preserves the ability to consolidate existing rental portfolios, enabling AMH to continue delivering our best-in-class resident experience to additional households across the country. This creates value not only for our residents, but also for our shareholders as additional homes are optimized on the AMH platform. Now to earnings. Demand for high-quality, single-family rental housing across our diversified portfolio footprint remains healthy. We delivered a strong H1 to the year, highlighted by another great spring leasing season. The team efficiently turned and re-leased a record number of homes through the first six months of the year, while also tightly managing expenses.
Bryan Smith: Millions of families will continue to have the opportunity to live in high-quality homes and neighborhoods without the burdens of homeownership. Third, the legislation preserves the ability to consolidate existing rental portfolios, enabling AMH to continue delivering our best-in-class resident experience to additional households across the country. This creates value not only for our residents, but also for our shareholders as additional homes are optimized on the AMH platform. Now to earnings. Demand for high-quality, single-family rental housing across our diversified portfolio footprint remains healthy. We delivered a strong H1 to the year, highlighted by another great spring leasing season. The team efficiently turned and re-leased a record number of homes through the first six months of the year, while also tightly managing expenses.
Speaker #3: Enabling AMH to continue delivering our best-in-class resident experience to additional households across the country creates value not only for our residents, but also for our shareholders, as additional homes are optimized on the AMH platform.
Speaker #3: Now to earnings. Demand for high-quality single-family rental housing across our diversified portfolio footprint remains healthy. We delivered a strong first half of the year, highlighted by another great spring leasing season.
Speaker #3: The team efficiently turned and re-leased a record number of homes through the first six months of the year, while also tightly managing expenses. In addition to these expense controls, we also saw contributions from our development program and capital allocation decisions.
Bryan Smith: In addition to these expense controls, we also saw contributions from our development program and capital allocation decisions, leading us to raise the midpoint of our Core FFO per share guidance by $0.03 to $1.95, which represents year-over-year growth of 4.3%. Turning to our Q2 same home results, average occupied days came in at 96%, and new, renewal, and blended spreads were 1.4%, 3.2%, and 2.7% respectively, driving core revenue growth of 2.3%. Notably, both new and renewal rate growth accelerated through the quarter, reflecting healthy demand for our homes. This momentum carried into July, with occupancy holding at 96.1% and new, renewal, and blended spreads of 1.6%, 3.3%, and 2.8% respectively. Looking ahead to the H2 of the year, we expect to see the benefits of our lease expiration profile where only one-third of 2026 lease expirations remain.
Bryan Smith: In addition to these expense controls, we also saw contributions from our development program and capital allocation decisions, leading us to raise the midpoint of our Core FFO per share guidance by $0.03 to $1.95, which represents year-over-year growth of 4.3%. Turning to our Q2 same home results, average occupied days came in at 96%, and new, renewal, and blended spreads were 1.4%, 3.2%, and 2.7% respectively, driving core revenue growth of 2.3%. Notably, both new and renewal rate growth accelerated through the quarter, reflecting healthy demand for our homes. This momentum carried into July, with occupancy holding at 96.1% and new, renewal, and blended spreads of 1.6%, 3.3%, and 2.8% respectively. Looking ahead to the H2 of the year, we expect to see the benefits of our lease expiration profile where only one-third of 2026 lease expirations remain.
Speaker #3: Leading us to raise the midpoint of our core FFO per share guidance by $0.03 to $1.95, which represents year-over-year growth of 4.3%. Turning to our second quarter same-home results, average occupied days came in at 96%, and new, renewal, and blended spreads were 1.4%, 3.2%, and 2.7%, respectively.
Speaker #3: Driving core revenue growth of 2.3%. Notably, both new and renewal rate growth accelerated through the quarter, reflecting healthy demand for our homes. This momentum carried into July, with occupancy holding at 96.1%, and new, renewal, and blended spreads of 1.6%, 3.3%, and 2.8%, respectively.
Speaker #3: Looking ahead to the second half of the year, we expect to see the benefits of our lease expiration profile, where only one-third of 2026 lease expirations remain.
Speaker #3: This should translate into a meaningfully flatter occupancy curve and set us up well from an inventory and pricing perspective heading into 2027. Turning to investments, we continue to take a disciplined approach to capital allocation.
Bryan Smith: This should translate into a meaningfully flatter occupancy curve and set us up well from an inventory and pricing perspective heading into 2027. Turning to investments, we continue to take a disciplined approach to capital allocation. Our development program remains on track. We are seeing modest improvement in initial yields, supported by our pre-leasing efforts and the team's continued success in keeping vertical construction costs flat. On the disposition front, demand from individual home buyers on the MLS remains strong. We have taken this opportunity to accelerate our portfolio optimization efforts and are tracking ahead of plan, having sold over 1,300 homes in the H1 of the year at cap rates in the 4% area. As a reminder, we are match funding on balance sheet development this year with proceeds from our disposition program.
Bryan Smith: This should translate into a meaningfully flatter occupancy curve and set us up well from an inventory and pricing perspective heading into 2027. Turning to investments, we continue to take a disciplined approach to capital allocation. Our development program remains on track. We are seeing modest improvement in initial yields, supported by our pre-leasing efforts and the team's continued success in keeping vertical construction costs flat. On the disposition front, demand from individual home buyers on the MLS remains strong. We have taken this opportunity to accelerate our portfolio optimization efforts and are tracking ahead of plan, having sold over 1,300 homes in the H1 of the year at cap rates in the 4% area. As a reminder, we are match funding on balance sheet development this year with proceeds from our disposition program.
Speaker #3: Our development program remains on track. We are seeing modest improvement in initial yields, supported by our pre-leasing efforts and the team's continued success in keeping vertical construction costs flat.
Speaker #3: On the disposition front, demand from individual homebuyers on the MLS remains strong. We have taken this opportunity to accelerate our portfolio optimization efforts and are tracking ahead of plan, having sold over 1,300 homes in the first half of the year at cap rates in the 4% area.
Speaker #3: As a reminder, we are matching funding on balance sheet development this year, with proceeds from our disposition program. Looking ahead, as I mentioned before, we are in a great position to capitalize on portfolio consolidation opportunities that arise.
Bryan Smith: Looking ahead, as I mentioned before, we are in a great position to capitalize on portfolio consolidation opportunities that arise. AMH has the platform and balance sheet to create meaningful value, we will only do so when the cost of capital and economics make sense. In closing, we had a great H1 of the year and are optimistic about the future of the industry. I want to thank our teams across the country for their hard work and continued commitment to providing high-quality housing and a superior resident experience to the families we serve. With that, I will turn the call over to Chris.
Bryan Smith: Looking ahead, as I mentioned before, we are in a great position to capitalize on portfolio consolidation opportunities that arise. AMH has the platform and balance sheet to create meaningful value, we will only do so when the cost of capital and economics make sense. In closing, we had a great H1 of the year and are optimistic about the future of the industry. I want to thank our teams across the country for their hard work and continued commitment to providing high-quality housing and a superior resident experience to the families we serve. With that, I will turn the call over to Chris.
Speaker #3: AMH has the platform and balance sheet to create meaningful value, but we will only do so when the cost of capital and economics make sense.
Speaker #3: In closing, we had a great first half of the year and are optimistic about the future of the industry. I want to thank our teams across the country for their hard work and continued commitment to providing high-quality housing and a superior resident experience to the families we serve.
Speaker #3: With that, I will turn the call over to Chris.
Speaker #2: Thanks, Bryan. And good morning, everyone. As usual, I'll cover three areas in my comments today. First, a review of our quarterly results; second, an update on our balance sheet and recent capital activity; and third, I'll close with commentary around our increased 2026 guidance.
Chris Lau: Thanks, Bryan, good morning, everyone. Like usual, I'll cover three areas in my comments today. First, a review of our quarterly results. Second, an update on our balance sheet and recent capital activity. Third, I'll close with commentary around our increased 2026 guidance. Starting off with our operating results, the teams delivered an outstanding Q2, generating net income attributable to common shareholders of $113.6 million, or $0.31 per diluted share. On an FFO share unit basis, we generated $0.49 of Core FFO, representing 5.2% year-over-year growth, and $0.45 of Adjusted FFO, representing 8.3% year-over-year growth. Notably, this quarter's FFO growth was driven by exceptional execution across all aspects of the AMH business.
Chris Lau: Thanks, Bryan, good morning, everyone. Like usual, I'll cover three areas in my comments today. First, a review of our quarterly results. Second, an update on our balance sheet and recent capital activity. Third, I'll close with commentary around our increased 2026 guidance. Starting off with our operating results, the teams delivered an outstanding Q2, generating net income attributable to common shareholders of $113.6 million, or $0.31 per diluted share. On an FFO share unit basis, we generated $0.49 of Core FFO, representing 5.2% year-over-year growth, and $0.45 of Adjusted FFO, representing 8.3% year-over-year growth. Notably, this quarter's FFO growth was driven by exceptional execution across all aspects of the AMH business.
Speaker #2: Starting off with our operating results, the team delivered an outstanding second quarter, generating net income attributable to common shareholders of $113.6 million, or $0.31 per diluted share.
Speaker #2: On a FFO per share and unit basis, we generated $0.49 of core FFO, representing 5.2% year-over-year growth, and $0.45 of adjusted FFO, representing 8.3% year-over-year growth.
Speaker #2: Notably, this quarter's FFO growth was driven by exceptional execution across all aspects of the AMH business. Just two quick examples: Within the same-home portfolio, the teams did an excellent job capturing the spring leasing season, sequentially growing leasing spreads and occupancy throughout the quarter, while impressively holding year-over-year controllable expense growth to less than 1%.
Chris Lau: As two quick examples, within the same home portfolio, the teams did an excellent job capturing the spring leasing season, sequentially growing leasing spreads and occupancy throughout the quarter, while impressively holding year-over-year controllable expense growth to less than 1%. On top of that, our teams set new records on the lease-up and pre-leasing of recently constructed AMH development homes, driving incremental NOI contribution outside of the same home portfolio. Speaking of development, this quarter, we delivered a total of 651 homes to our wholly owned and joint venture portfolios. Of those homes, 542 were delivered to our wholly owned portfolio for a total investment cost of approximately $220 million. Additionally, as Bryan mentioned, we saw another quarter of robust disposition activity. On a year-to-date basis, we've now generated approximately $380 million of net proceeds, which is comfortably ahead of our initial timing expectations.
Chris Lau: As two quick examples, within the same home portfolio, the teams did an excellent job capturing the spring leasing season, sequentially growing leasing spreads and occupancy throughout the quarter, while impressively holding year-over-year controllable expense growth to less than 1%. On top of that, our teams set new records on the lease-up and pre-leasing of recently constructed AMH development homes, driving incremental NOI contribution outside of the same home portfolio. Speaking of development, this quarter, we delivered a total of 651 homes to our wholly owned and joint venture portfolios. Of those homes, 542 were delivered to our wholly owned portfolio for a total investment cost of approximately $220 million. Additionally, as Bryan mentioned, we saw another quarter of robust disposition activity. On a year-to-date basis, we've now generated approximately $380 million of net proceeds, which is comfortably ahead of our initial timing expectations.
Speaker #2: And on top of that, our team set new records on the lease-up and pre-leasing of recently constructed AMH development homes, driving incremental NOI contribution outside of the same-home portfolio.
Speaker #2: And speaking of development, this quarter we delivered a total of 651 homes to our wholly owned and joint venture portfolios. Of those homes, 542 were delivered to our wholly owned portfolio for a total investment cost of approximately $220 million.
Speaker #2: Additionally, as Bryan mentioned, we saw another quarter of robust disposition activity. On a year-to-date basis, we've now generated approximately $380 million of net proceeds, which is comfortably ahead of our initial timing expectations.
Speaker #2: Which means that, on a full-year basis, we are now likely tracking toward the upper half of our $400 to $600 million range that we outlined at the start of the year, reducing some of our planned incremental debt needs.
Chris Lau: Which means that on a full year basis, we are now likely tracking towards the upper half of the $400 to 600 million range that we outlined at the start of the year, reducing some of our planned incremental debt needs. Next, I'd like to quickly turn to our balance sheet and recent capital activity. At the end of the quarter, our net debt, including preferred shares to Adjusted EBITDA, was 5.2x. We had approximately $84 million of cash available on the balance sheet, and we had a $390 million drawn balance on our $1.25 billion revolving credit facility. Additionally, during the quarter, we attractively repurchased 4.1 million common shares for a total of $123 million at an average price of $29.88 per share. Next, I'll cover our updated 2026 earnings guidance, which was positively revised in yesterday's earnings press release.
Chris Lau: Which means that on a full year basis, we are now likely tracking towards the upper half of the $400 to 600 million range that we outlined at the start of the year, reducing some of our planned incremental debt needs. Next, I'd like to quickly turn to our balance sheet and recent capital activity. At the end of the quarter, our net debt, including preferred shares to Adjusted EBITDA, was 5.2x. We had approximately $84 million of cash available on the balance sheet, and we had a $390 million drawn balance on our $1.25 billion revolving credit facility. Additionally, during the quarter, we attractively repurchased 4.1 million common shares for a total of $123 million at an average price of $29.88 per share. Next, I'll cover our updated 2026 earnings guidance, which was positively revised in yesterday's earnings press release.
Speaker #2: Next, I'd like to quickly turn to our balance sheet and recent capital activity. At the end of the quarter, our net debt, including preferred shares, to adjusted EBITDA was 5.2 times, with approximately 84 million dollars of cash available on the balance sheet, and we had a 390 million dollar drawn balance on our one and a quarter billion dollar revolving credit facility.
Speaker #2: Additionally, during the quarter, we attractively repurchased 4.1 million common shares for a total of $123 million at an average price of $29.88 per share.
Speaker #2: And next, I'll cover our updated 2026 earnings guidance, which was positively revised in yesterday's earnings press release. Starting with the same-home portfolio—recognizing the team's outstanding cost control execution and modestly favorable property tax news in a few of our smaller states—we've lowered the midpoint of our full-year core expense growth expectations by 75 basis points, to 2%.
Chris Lau: Starting with the same home portfolio, recognizing the team's outstanding cost control execution and modestly favorable property tax news in a few of our smaller states, we've lowered the midpoint of our full year core expense growth expectations by 75 basis points to 2%. In turn, we have increased the midpoint of our core NOI growth expectations by 40 basis points to 2.4%, and we now expect 2026 same home core NOI margins to modestly expand compared to 2025. For the non-same home portfolio, we also expect incremental core NOI growth from similar expense benefits and additional contribution from our solid AMH development lease-up activity. When combined with our better-than-expected disposition activity and incremental share repurchases, we have increased the midpoint of our full year 2026 Core FFO per share expectations by a total of $0.03.
Chris Lau: Starting with the same home portfolio, recognizing the team's outstanding cost control execution and modestly favorable property tax news in a few of our smaller states, we've lowered the midpoint of our full year core expense growth expectations by 75 basis points to 2%. In turn, we have increased the midpoint of our core NOI growth expectations by 40 basis points to 2.4%, and we now expect 2026 same home core NOI margins to modestly expand compared to 2025. For the non-same home portfolio, we also expect incremental core NOI growth from similar expense benefits and additional contribution from our solid AMH development lease-up activity. When combined with our better-than-expected disposition activity and incremental share repurchases, we have increased the midpoint of our full year 2026 Core FFO per share expectations by a total of $0.03.
Speaker #2: In turn, we have increased the midpoint of our core NOI growth expectations by 40 basis points to 2.4%, and we now expect 2026 same-home core NOI margins to modestly expand compared to 2025.
Speaker #2: And for the non-same-home portfolio, we also expect incremental core NOI growth from similar expense benefits and additional contribution from our solid AMH development lease-up activity.
Speaker #2: And when combined with our better-than-expected disposition activity and incremental share repurchases, we have increased the midpoint of our full-year 2026 core FFO per share expectations by a total of $0.03.
Speaker #2: Our new midpoint of $1.95 per share now reflects the high end of our previous range and represents a year-over-year growth expectation of 4.3%, which continues to position AMH at the top of the residential sector.
Chris Lau: Our new midpoint of $1.95 per share now reflects the high end of our previous range and represents a year-over-year growth expectation of 4.3%, which continues to position AMH at the top of the residential sector. Before we open the call to your questions, I'd like to close with one final thought. Like Bryan mentioned at the start, as our industry begins to emerge from some of the recent uncertainty, AMH's positioning as the largest integrated operator and developer of single-family rental homes will likely be more important than ever. The AMH development program gives us the unique ability to both control our external growth while also contributing much needed housing stock across the country as we continue to create value for our residents, communities, and shareholders. With that, we'll open the call to your questions. Operator?
Chris Lau: Our new midpoint of $1.95 per share now reflects the high end of our previous range and represents a year-over-year growth expectation of 4.3%, which continues to position AMH at the top of the residential sector. Before we open the call to your questions, I'd like to close with one final thought. Like Bryan mentioned at the start, as our industry begins to emerge from some of the recent uncertainty, AMH's positioning as the largest integrated operator and developer of single-family rental homes will likely be more important than ever. The AMH development program gives us the unique ability to both control our external growth while also contributing much needed housing stock across the country as we continue to create value for our residents, communities, and shareholders. With that, we'll open the call to your questions. Operator?
Speaker #2: And before we open the call to your questions, I'd like to close with one final thought. Like Bryan mentioned at the start, as our industry begins to emerge from some of the recent uncertainty, AMH's positioning as the largest integrated operator and developer of single-family rental homes will likely be more important than ever.
Speaker #2: The AMH development program gives us the unique ability to both control our external growth while also contributing much-needed housing stock across the country, as we continue to create value for our residents, communities, and shareholders.
Speaker #2: And with that, we'll open the call to your questions. Operator?
Speaker #1: Thank you. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad.
Operator: Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. That we may address questions from as many participants as possible, we ask that you limit yourself to one question. If you have additional questions, you may re-queue, and time permitting, those questions will be addressed. One moment please while we pull for questions. Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Juan Sanabria with BMO Capital Markets. Please proceed.
Operator: Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. That we may address questions from as many participants as possible, we ask that you limit yourself to one question. If you have additional questions, you may re-queue, and time permitting, those questions will be addressed. One moment please while we pull for questions. Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Juan Sanabria with BMO Capital Markets. Please proceed.
Speaker #1: A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue.
Speaker #1: For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. So that we may address questions from as many participants as possible, we ask that you limit yourself to one question.
Speaker #1: If you have additional questions, you may re-queue, and, time permitting, those questions will be addressed. One moment, please, while we pull for questions. Thank you.
Speaker #1: Our first question comes from the line of Kwan Sambria with BMO Capital Markets. Please proceed.
Speaker #3: Good morning. Congrats on the quarter. Just hoping you could spend a little bit of time on CapEx. You have a nice trend in the quarter and year-to-date.
Juan Sanabria: Good morning. Congrats on the quarter. Just hoping you could spend a little bit of time on CapEx. Have a nice trend in the quarter and year to date, both in terms of maintenance and R&M and turn costs. Just hoping you could expand on what's driving that, whether it's dispositions and/or new developments and kind of the prospects going forward. What's kind of the new normal spend on an annual basis?
Juan Sanabria: Good morning. Congrats on the quarter. Just hoping you could spend a little bit of time on CapEx. Have a nice trend in the quarter and year to date, both in terms of maintenance and R&M and turn costs. Just hoping you could expand on what's driving that, whether it's dispositions and/or new developments and kind of the prospects going forward. What's kind of the new normal spend on an annual basis?
Speaker #3: Both in terms of maintenance and R&M, and turn costs. Just hoping you could expand on what's driving that, whether it's dispositions and/or new developments, and kind of the prospects going forward.
Speaker #3: What's kind of the new normal spend on an annual basis?
Speaker #4: Hi, Juan. This is Lincoln. Thanks for the question. Good to hear your voice this morning. Coming out of last year and the first half, I recognize that we had some opportunities to tighten up some of our processes and make some structural adjustments to prepare for ’26.
Chris Lau: Hi, Juan. This is Lincoln. Thanks for the question. Good to hear your voice this morning. Coming out of last year in H1, recognized that we had some opportunities to tighten up some of our processes and make some structural adjustments to prepare us for 2026. We layered that in with the investments that we've been making in some of the technologies and making sure that we have the right teams. In H2 of 2025 showed great improvements. As we came into 2026, as you know, we had a little bit heavier lift with the larger lease expirations in Q1 and Q2. The teams did a fantastic job managing through that, probably even a little bit better than we expected.
Lincoln Palmer: Hi, Juan. This is Lincoln. Thanks for the question. Good to hear your voice this morning. Coming out of last year in H1, recognized that we had some opportunities to tighten up some of our processes and make some structural adjustments to prepare us for 2026. We layered that in with the investments that we've been making in some of the technologies and making sure that we have the right teams. In H2 of 2025 showed great improvements. As we came into 2026, as you know, we had a little bit heavier lift with the larger lease expirations in Q1 and Q2. The teams did a fantastic job managing through that, probably even a little bit better than we expected.
Speaker #4: We layered that in with the investments that we've been making in some of the technologies, and making sure that we have the right teams.
Speaker #4: And in the back half of '25, we showed great improvements. As we came into '26, as you know, we had a little bit heavier lift with the larger lease expirations in the first and second quarters.
Speaker #4: The teams did a fantastic job managing through that, probably even a little bit better than we expected. And as we got through what was a little bit of an uncertain period for us, we were able to see that we can handle those types of changes to the lease expiration schedule.
Chris Lau: As we got through what was a little bit of an uncertain period for us, we were able to see that we can handle those types of changes to the lease expiration schedule. As we move to H2 of the year here, all those improvements remain in place, and we expect that we'll continue to see great benefit from the things we've done. I wouldn't expect the R&M and turn and some of the other components that are on the controllable side to remain in negative territory. H2, I would expect something closer to low single digits or inflation like.
Lincoln Palmer: As we got through what was a little bit of an uncertain period for us, we were able to see that we can handle those types of changes to the lease expiration schedule. As we move to H2 of the year here, all those improvements remain in place, and we expect that we'll continue to see great benefit from the things we've done. I wouldn't expect the R&M and turn and some of the other components that are on the controllable side to remain in negative territory. H2, I would expect something closer to low single digits or inflation like.
Speaker #4: So, as we move to the back half of the year here, all those improvements remain in place, and we expect that we'll continue to see great benefit from the things that we've done.
Speaker #4: I wouldn't expect the R&M and Turn, and some of the other components that are on the controllable side, to remain in negative territory. In the back half, I would expect something closer to low single digits or inflation-like.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jamie Feldman with Wells Fargo. Please proceed.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jamie Feldman with Wells Fargo. Please proceed.
Speaker #1: The next question comes from the line of Jamie Feldman with Wells Fargo. Please proceed.
Speaker #5: Hi, thank you. This is Conner on with Jamie. Thinking back to the last earnings call, I believe Atlanta was showing some early green shoots, and there was a bit more caution on Texas and Phoenix.
[Analyst] (Wells Fargo): Hi. Thank you. This is Conor on with Jamie. Thinking back to the last earnings call, I believe Atlanta was showing some early green shoots and there was a bit more caution on Texas and Phoenix. In looking at Q2 results, Houston, Dallas delivered blends over 2%, while Phoenix and Tampa blends were a bit weaker. How would you say those markets have performed versus your initial expectations, and where do you still need to see some more evidence of a recovery?
Conor Peaks: Hi. Thank you. This is Conor on with Jamie. Thinking back to the last earnings call, I believe Atlanta was showing some early green shoots and there was a bit more caution on Texas and Phoenix. In looking at Q2 results, Houston, Dallas delivered blends over 2%, while Phoenix and Tampa blends were a bit weaker. How would you say those markets have performed versus your initial expectations, and where do you still need to see some more evidence of a recovery?
Speaker #5: And looking at two key results, Houston and Dallas delivered blends over 2%, while Phoenix and Tampa blends were a bit weaker. How would you say those markets have performed versus your initial expectations?
Speaker #5: And where do you still need to see some more evidence of a recovery?
Speaker #4: Yeah, thanks, Conner. We're actually very pleased with what we've seen in the vast majority of our markets, from a pickup in occupancy and from a rate perspective.
Chris Lau: Thanks, Conor. We're actually very pleased with what we've seen in the vast majority of our markets from a pickup in occupancy from a rate perspective. You can see that in the May, June, and extension into July performance. Especially pleased with some of the pickups in occupancy that we saw in some markets into July.
Lincoln Palmer: Thanks, Conor. We're actually very pleased with what we've seen in the vast majority of our markets from a pickup in occupancy from a rate perspective. You can see that in the May, June, and extension into July performance. Especially pleased with some of the pickups in occupancy that we saw in some markets into July. As far as Atlanta specifically goes, we had a pickup into July there. Still probably running a little bit less than what we want to be on total occupancy, and rates seem to be treading water a little bit. It's not the brightest spot in the portfolio. Again, we're seeing improvements in a lot of places. Tampa, while, again, kind of flat on occupancy and needs some work on rate, we are seeing some green shoots there as well.
Speaker #4: You can see that in the May, June, and extension into July performance. Especially pleased with some of the pickups and occupancy that we saw in some markets into July.
Speaker #4: As far as Atlanta specifically goes, we had a pickup into July there. Still, probably running a little bit less than what we'd want to be on total occupancy.
Lincoln Palmer: As far as Atlanta specifically goes, we had a pickup into July there. Still probably running a little bit less than what we want to be on total occupancy, and rates seem to be treading water a little bit. It's not the brightest spot in the portfolio. Again, we're seeing improvements in a lot of places. Tampa, while, again, kind of flat on occupancy and needs some work on rate, we are seeing some green shoots there as well. This time of year, we've seen a reduction in supply in the Tampa market for the first time in quite a while. We expect that that will flow through into results over the next few quarters. Continue to see great strength in the Midwest, and some of our western markets. Seattle continues to be wonderful for us. High occupancy there.
Speaker #4: And rates seem to be treading water a little bit, so it's not the bright spot of the portfolio. But again, we're seeing improvements in a lot of places.
Speaker #4: Tampa, while again kind of flat on occupancy and needing some work on rate, we are seeing some green shoots there as well. This time of year, we've seen a reduction in supply in the Tampa market for the first time in quite a while.
Lincoln Palmer: This time of year, we've seen a reduction in supply in the Tampa market for the first time in quite a while. We expect that that will flow through into results over the next few quarters. Continue to see great strength in the Midwest, and some of our western markets. Seattle continues to be wonderful for us. High occupancy there. Boise, Salt Lake City, most of these markets are trending in the 96% to 97% range. Very happy with the way that things have moved through the season.
Speaker #4: And we expect that that will flow through into results over the next few quarters. We continue to see great strength in the Midwest, and some of our western markets—Seattle continues to be wonderful for us.
Speaker #4: High occupancies there. Boise, Salt Lake City—most of these markets are trending in the 96 to 97 percent range. So, very, very happy with the way that things have moved through the season.
Lincoln Palmer: Boise, Salt Lake City, most of these markets are trending in the 96% to 97% range. Very happy with the way that things have moved through the season.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Eric Wolfe with Citi. Please proceed.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Eric Wolfe with Citi. Please proceed.
Speaker #1: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Eric Wolf with Citi. Please proceed.
Speaker #3: Hey, thanks. I think in the past you said that you only have about 33% of leases expiring in the back half of this year.
Eric Wolfe: Hey, thanks. I think in the past, you said that you only have about 33% of leases expiring in the back half of this year. Correct me if I'm wrong on that. I was curious sort of how that compares to prior years, so last year and the year before that, to sort of understand the expiration risk. Assuming it's actually less than the last couple of years, does that influence how you think about renewals in the back half? Does that allow you to be a bit more aggressive because you're not risking as much occupancy? Just trying to understand how that sort of impacts your strategy.
Eric Wolfe: Hey, thanks. I think in the past, you said that you only have about 33% of leases expiring in the back half of this year. Correct me if I'm wrong on that. I was curious sort of how that compares to prior years, so last year and the year before that, to sort of understand the expiration risk. Assuming it's actually less than the last couple of years, does that influence how you think about renewals in the back half? Does that allow you to be a bit more aggressive because you're not risking as much occupancy? Just trying to understand how that sort of impacts your strategy.
Speaker #3: Correct me if I'm wrong on that. I was curious how that compares to prior years—so, last year and the year before—to get a better understanding of the expiration risk.
Speaker #3: And assuming it's actually less than the last couple of years, does that influence how you think about renewals in the back half? Does that allow you to be a bit more aggressive because you're not risking as much occupancy?
Speaker #3: Just trying to understand how that sort of impacts your strategy.
Speaker #4: Hi, Eric. Thanks for the question. As you know, this lease expiration management initiative of ours has been a multi-year effort. We made the broad-brushstroke changes to that in '25, where we saw expirations land kind of in the 50/50 range, as we talked about.
Lincoln Palmer: Hi, Eric. Thanks for the question. As you know, this lease expiration management initiative of ours has been a multi-year effort. We made the broad brushstroke changes to that in 2025, where we saw expirations land kind of in the 50/50 range, is what we talked about. It looks much more closer to your observation this year, which is two-thirds, one-third. Again, very proud of the way that we managed that for the first part of the year. We're looking forward to the benefit of that in the back half of the year. Part of that benefit will be on the renewal side, and that's a natural part of our usual curve, where as activity slows down and resident movement slows down, we have a little bit more opportunity on the renewal side.
Lincoln Palmer: Hi, Eric. Thanks for the question. As you know, this lease expiration management initiative of ours has been a multi-year effort. We made the broad brushstroke changes to that in 2025, where we saw expirations land kind of in the 50/50 range, is what we talked about. It looks much more closer to your observation this year, which is two-thirds, one-third. Again, very proud of the way that we managed that for the first part of the year. We're looking forward to the benefit of that in the back half of the year. Part of that benefit will be on the renewal side, and that's a natural part of our usual curve, where as activity slows down and resident movement slows down, we have a little bit more opportunity on the renewal side.
Speaker #4: It looks much closer to your observation this year, which is two-thirds, one-third. Again, very proud of the way that we managed that for the first part of the year.
Speaker #4: And we're looking forward to the benefit of that in the back half of the year. Part of that benefit will be on the renewal side, and that's a natural part of our usual curve, where as activity slows down and resident movement slows down, we have a little bit more opportunity on the renewal side.
Speaker #4: We've talked about those trending into the 3.5% range, and we should see them migrate in that direction over the next couple of months.
Lincoln Palmer: We've talked about those trending into the 3.5% range, and we should see them migrate in that direction over the next couple months. The other benefit is that as that activity slows down this year on the backside of leasing season, that's going to match nicely with the expirations. Those will also slow down, and we expect to be in a much better inventory position. As we've said in the past, our objective is always to go into the first part of every year in the best position possible from an occupancy standpoint. We think we have a great shot at that this year, given the shape and how we plan for it.
Lincoln Palmer: We've talked about those trending into the 3.5% range, and we should see them migrate in that direction over the next couple months. The other benefit is that as that activity slows down this year on the backside of leasing season, that's going to match nicely with the expirations. Those will also slow down, and we expect to be in a much better inventory position. As we've said in the past, our objective is always to go into the first part of every year in the best position possible from an occupancy standpoint. We think we have a great shot at that this year, given the shape and how we plan for it.
Speaker #4: The other benefit is that, as that activity slows down this year on the back side of leasing season, that's going to match nicely with the expirations.
Speaker #4: Those will also slow down, and we expect to be in a much better inventory position. And as we've said in the past, our objective is always to go into the first part of every year in the best position possible from an occupancy standpoint.
Speaker #4: And we think we have a great shot at that this year, given the shape and how we plan for it.
Speaker #1: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Handel St. Jews with Mizuho Securities. Please proceed.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Haendel St. Juste with Mizuho Securities. Please proceed.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Haendel St. Juste with Mizuho Securities. Please proceed.
Speaker #5: Hey, good morning out there to you guys. I wanted to talk about development. It sounds like the projects in your pipeline and the projects that we're leasing up seem like they have been a bit better in this part of the raise here.
Haendel St. Juste: Good morning out there to you guys. Wanted to talk about development. Sounds like the projects in your pipeline, the projects that were leasing up, seems like they've been a bit better in the part of the raise here. Can you talk about what you're seeing in the pipeline versus your underwriting on the lease-ups, and where the yields are coming in versus the five and a quarter I think you mentioned in prior quarters? What are you underwriting for projects you're starting today? Thanks.
Haendel St. Juste: Good morning out there to you guys. Wanted to talk about development. Sounds like the projects in your pipeline, the projects that were leasing up, seems like they've been a bit better in the part of the raise here. Can you talk about what you're seeing in the pipeline versus your underwriting on the lease-ups, and where the yields are coming in versus the five and a quarter I think you mentioned in prior quarters? What are you underwriting for projects you're starting today? Thanks.
Speaker #5: Can you talk about what you're seeing in the pipeline versus your underwriting on the lease-ups, and where the yields are coming in versus the 5.25% I think you mentioned in prior quarters?
Speaker #5: And what are you underwriting for projects you're starting today? Thanks.
Speaker #4: Yeah, thanks, Handel. This is Brian. As I mentioned in my prepared remarks, we're really pleased with the lease-up of our new deliveries this year, and we've seen a little bit of an improvement in yields coming out of Q1 into Q2.
Bryan Smith: Yeah, thanks, Haendel. This is Bryan. As I mentioned in my prepared remarks, we're really pleased with the lease-up of our new deliveries this year. We've seen a little bit of an improvement in yields coming out of Q1 into Q2. A lot of that's just due to pricing. You're seeing the benefits of some of our pre-leasing initiatives that we started last year and are continuing to refine. If you look at the H1 of the year, we leased about what we delivered, which is very healthy when you think about these projects that are still in development. A really interesting fact, if you look at the H2 of the year, I think we're on schedule to deliver about 700 houses, and of those houses, already 40% are rented.
Bryan Smith: Yeah, thanks, Haendel. This is Bryan. As I mentioned in my prepared remarks, we're really pleased with the lease-up of our new deliveries this year. We've seen a little bit of an improvement in yields coming out of Q1 into Q2. A lot of that's just due to pricing. You're seeing the benefits of some of our pre-leasing initiatives that we started last year and are continuing to refine. If you look at the H1 of the year, we leased about what we delivered, which is very healthy when you think about these projects that are still in development. A really interesting fact, if you look at the H2 of the year, I think we're on schedule to deliver about 700 houses, and of those houses, already 40% are rented.
Speaker #4: A lot of that's just due to pricing. You're seeing the benefits of some of our pre-leasing initiatives that we started last year and are continuing to refine.
Speaker #4: If you look at the first half of the year, we leased about what we delivered, which is very healthy when you think about these projects that are still in development.
Speaker #4: And then, a really interesting fact—if you look at the back half of the year, I think we're on schedule to deliver about 700 houses.
Speaker #4: And of those houses, already 40% are rented. And what that means is it's very healthy for us to be able to do it from a pricing perspective, from a kind of migration through the development process and delivery process.
Bryan Smith: What that means is it's very healthy for us to be able to do it from a pricing perspective, from a kind of migration through the development process and delivery process. In the event, this is one of the benefits of owning the entire development cycle in-house. We have the ability to deliver more quickly or slow down those deliveries on a monthly basis as we plan into next year. Those yields, again, are a major function of rents. They look really good coming into Q2. We're optimistic that there's some nice changes going on. The new deals that we're looking at, really think of it in terms of replenishment of some of the pipeline to maintain good continuity in the development markets that we really like. The few deals that we've closed this year are looking yields into the sixes.
Bryan Smith: What that means is it's very healthy for us to be able to do it from a pricing perspective, from a kind of migration through the development process and delivery process. In the event, this is one of the benefits of owning the entire development cycle in-house. We have the ability to deliver more quickly or slow down those deliveries on a monthly basis as we plan into next year. Those yields, again, are a major function of rents. They look really good coming into Q2. We're optimistic that there's some nice changes going on. The new deals that we're looking at, really think of it in terms of replenishment of some of the pipeline to maintain good continuity in the development markets that we really like. The few deals that we've closed this year are looking yields into the sixes.
Speaker #4: And in the event—and this is one of the benefits of owning the entire development cycle in-house—we have the ability to deliver more quickly or slow down those deliveries on a monthly basis as we plan into next year.
Speaker #4: Those yields, again, are a major function of rents. They look really good coming into Q2. We're optimistic that there are some nice changes going on.
Speaker #4: And the new deals that we're looking at—really, think of it in terms of replenishment of some of the pipeline to maintain good continuity in the development markets that we really like.
Speaker #4: But the few deals that we've closed this year are looking to yield in the sixes. We're getting there through a couple of different ways.
Bryan Smith: We're getting there through a couple of different ways. We're seeing some favorable opportunities on the land side. There's been some optimization in the way that we're designing and delivering these houses. There's just a ton of demand for them, as we talked about in the past. I would think about the new deals we're looking at that we'll close a few more in the balance of this year as well are in the sixes, and we're working through kind of the mid to low fives right now.
Bryan Smith: We're getting there through a couple of different ways. We're seeing some favorable opportunities on the land side. There's been some optimization in the way that we're designing and delivering these houses. There's just a ton of demand for them, as we talked about in the past. I would think about the new deals we're looking at that we'll close a few more in the balance of this year as well are in the sixes, and we're working through kind of the mid to low fives right now.
Speaker #4: We're seeing some favorable opportunities on the land side. There's been some optimization in the way that we're designing and delivering these houses, and there's just a ton of demand for them, as we talked about in the past.
Speaker #4: So, I would think about the new deals we're looking at, that we'll close a few more as a balance of this year as well.
Speaker #4: Are in the sixes, and we're working through kind of the mid to low fives right now.
Speaker #1: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Steve Sackwell with Evercore ISI. Please proceed.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Steve Sakwa with Evercore ISI. Please proceed.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Steve Sakwa with Evercore ISI. Please proceed.
Speaker #5: Yeah, thanks. Good morning. Thanks for the comments on July. I was just hoping you could maybe clarify what your expectations are as it relates to occupancy in Q3, Q4, and also your expectations about blended spreads.
Steve Sakwa: Yeah. Thanks. Good morning. Thanks for the comments on July. I was just hoping if you could maybe clarify what your expectations are as it relates to occupancy in Q3, Q4, and kind of just also your expectations about blended spreads. I realize occupancy dropped a lot last year, just trying to figure out kind of the cadence of occupancy and blends in the back half. Thanks.
Steve Sakwa: Yeah. Thanks. Good morning. Thanks for the comments on July. I was just hoping if you could maybe clarify what your expectations are as it relates to occupancy in Q3, Q4, and kind of just also your expectations about blended spreads. I realize occupancy dropped a lot last year, just trying to figure out kind of the cadence of occupancy and blends in the back half. Thanks.
Speaker #5: I realize occupancy dropped a lot last year, and I'm just trying to figure out the cadence of occupancy and blends in the back half.
Speaker #5: Thanks.
Speaker #4: Hi, Steve. Thanks for the question. This is Lincoln. Yeah, we're aware that the curve looks a little bit different this year. We expect to hold occupancy in the back half.
Chris Lau: Hi, Steve. Thanks for the question. This is Lincoln. Yeah, we're aware that the curve looks a little bit differently this year. We expect to hold occupancy in the back half. We've talked about that on a full year basis, in the high 95 area. We're pleased with the way that July ended, again, with seeing building occupancy in many of our markets, which gives us a great shot at doing this. That's supported in part by the lease expiration management program that we talked about a little bit earlier. New lease rate growth is still anticipated to be in the flattish area for the full year. Then again, the renewal rates in the 3.5% area, with blends in the low twos.
Lincoln Palmer: Hi, Steve. Thanks for the question. This is Lincoln. Yeah, we're aware that the curve looks a little bit differently this year. We expect to hold occupancy in the back half. We've talked about that on a full year basis, in the high 95 area. We're pleased with the way that July ended, again, with seeing building occupancy in many of our markets, which gives us a great shot at doing this. That's supported in part by the lease expiration management program that we talked about a little bit earlier. New lease rate growth is still anticipated to be in the flattish area for the full year. Then again, the renewal rates in the 3.5% area, with blends in the low twos.
Speaker #4: We've talked about that on a full-year basis, in the high 95% area. We're pleased with the way that July ended, again with seeing building occupancy in many of our markets, which gives us a great shot at doing this.
Speaker #4: That's supported in part by the lease expiration management program that we talked about a little bit earlier. New lease rate growth is still anticipated to be in the flattish area for the full year.
Speaker #4: And then again, the renewal rates in the three-and-a-half percent area—or excuse me, yeah, renewal rates in the 3.5% area—with blends in the low twos.
Speaker #1: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Janna Gallen with Bank of America. Please proceed.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Juan Sanabria with Bank of America. Please proceed.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Juan Sanabria with Bank of America. Please proceed.
Speaker #2: Thank you, and congratulations on a great quarter. Maybe a question going back to capital allocation. If you could talk about how you think through the preferences between share buybacks, the development program, and maybe where today's seller expectations are for some smaller portfolio transactions.
Juan Sanabria: Thank you, and congratulations on a great quarter. Maybe a question, going back to capital allocation, if you could talk about how you think through the preferences between share buybacks, the development program, and maybe where today's seller expectations for some smaller portfolio transactions are.
Jana Galan: Thank you, and congratulations on a great quarter. Maybe a question, going back to capital allocation, if you could talk about how you think through the preferences between share buybacks, the development program, and maybe where today's seller expectations for some smaller portfolio transactions are.
Speaker #4: Yeah. Morning, Yana. Chris here. Why don't I start on the buyback piece, and then, between Brian and I, we can talk a little bit about portfolios.
Chris Lau: Yeah. Morning, Juan. Chris here. Why don't I start on the buyback piece, and then between Bryan and I, we can talk a little bit about portfolios. On the buyback piece, I would say our view there is really no different than the past couple of quarters, where we continue to very much believe in the business and believe in the stock. You can see that in how active we've been over the past about 9 months or so now, including repurchasing about $123 million just recently in the Q2, which brings total repurchases over the past 9 months to a little over 3% or so of shares and units outstanding, at an average price of about $31 per share. Since then, it's been nice to see that the stock has started to move in the right direction.
Chris Lau: Yeah. Morning, Juan. Chris here. Why don't I start on the buyback piece, and then between Bryan and I, we can talk a little bit about portfolios. On the buyback piece, I would say our view there is really no different than the past couple of quarters, where we continue to very much believe in the business and believe in the stock. You can see that in how active we've been over the past about 9 months or so now, including repurchasing about $123 million just recently in the Q2, which brings total repurchases over the past 9 months to a little over 3% or so of shares and units outstanding, at an average price of about $31 per share. Since then, it's been nice to see that the stock has started to move in the right direction.
Speaker #4: On the buyback piece, I would say our view there is really no different than the past couple of quarters, where we continue to very much believe in the business and believe in the stock.
Speaker #4: And you can see that in how active we've been over the past about nine months or so now, including repurchasing about $123 million just recently in the second quarter.
Speaker #4: Which brings total repurchases over the past nine months to a little over 3% or so of shares and units at $31 per share. Since then, it's been nice to see that the stock has started to move in the right direction.
Speaker #4: But look, going forward, we continue to watch the stock closely, right alongside—just like any other form of capital allocation alternative. And if more opportunities look attractive, like we've talked about before, we have more capacity, right?
Chris Lau: Look, going forward, we continue to watch the stock closely right alongside, and just like any other form of capital allocation alternative. If more opportunities look attractive, like we've talked about before, we have more capacity, right? Leverage ended the quarter in the low fives. That's below our long-term target. Like we talked about in prepared remarks, dispositions are tracking better than we were expecting at the beginning of the year. We still have about $377 million or so of remaining capacity on our current repurchase authorization.
Chris Lau: Look, going forward, we continue to watch the stock closely right alongside, and just like any other form of capital allocation alternative. If more opportunities look attractive, like we've talked about before, we have more capacity, right? Leverage ended the quarter in the low fives. That's below our long-term target. Like we talked about in prepared remarks, dispositions are tracking better than we were expecting at the beginning of the year. We still have about $377 million or so of remaining capacity on our current repurchase authorization.
Speaker #4: Leverage ended the quarter in the low fives. That's pretty— that's below our long-term target I referenced in the prepared remarks. Dispositions are tracking better than we were expecting at the beginning of the year.
Speaker #4: And then we still have about $377 million or so of remaining capacity on our current repurchase authorization.
Speaker #5: Yeah, Yana. And then, with regards to portfolios and what we're seeing out there, as most everyone knows, the consolidation environment this year was really on pause.
Bryan Smith: Yeah, Juan, with regards to portfolios and what we're seeing out there, as most everyone knows, the consolidation environment this year was really on pause with all the legislation and the attention from Washington. There were a couple of deals that closed in January, and then it really was in a little bit of a wait and see. Post-legislation, we've seen a little bit more activity. There are some deals that are coming. We're talking to some owners. What's interesting for us is this legislation preserved our 2 major growth channels, our outlook for growth in the future due to our in-house development program and then the opportunity to consolidate portfolios. On the other hand, it affects the growth opportunities for some of the other smaller companies who are relying on MLS purchases. These additional regulations, I think, are going to make that more difficult.
Bryan Smith: Yeah, Juan, with regards to portfolios and what we're seeing out there, as most everyone knows, the consolidation environment this year was really on pause with all the legislation and the attention from Washington. There were a couple of deals that closed in January, and then it really was in a little bit of a wait and see. Post-legislation, we've seen a little bit more activity. There are some deals that are coming. We're talking to some owners. What's interesting for us is this legislation preserved our 2 major growth channels, our outlook for growth in the future due to our in-house development program and then the opportunity to consolidate portfolios. On the other hand, it affects the growth opportunities for some of the other smaller companies who are relying on MLS purchases. These additional regulations, I think, are going to make that more difficult.
Speaker #5: With all the legislation and the attention from Washington, there were a couple of deals that closed in January, and then it really was a little bit of a wait-and-see.
Speaker #5: Post-legislation, we've seen a little bit more activity. There are some deals that are coming. We're talking to some owners, and what's interesting for us is this legislation preserved our two major growth channels.
Speaker #5: Our outlook for growth in the future is driven by our in-house development program, as well as the opportunity to consolidate portfolios. On the other hand, this impacts the growth opportunities for some of the other, smaller companies who rely on MLS purchases.
Speaker #5: And these additional regulations, I think, are going to make that more difficult—not impossible. There are exceptions. The rules are still being written. But it will make it more difficult, and potentially less attractive.
Bryan Smith: Not impossible. There are exceptions. The rules are still being written. It will make it more difficult and potentially less attractive. As a result of that, you couple that with the importance of an optimized and efficient operating platform, and it puts us in a really good position to add a lot of value to the portfolios, and provide a complete solution to sellers who might find the space less attractive in light of the recent changes. Our expectations are that this will play out over the next 12 to 18 months as people really look to the long-term plans. We are seeing an uptick in activity. In terms of seller expectations and pricing, we haven't seen anything trade. It's a little bit early to nail those numbers down, but we would expect the sellers to become realistic with what we can offer them over time.
Bryan Smith: Not impossible. There are exceptions. The rules are still being written. It will make it more difficult and potentially less attractive. As a result of that, you couple that with the importance of an optimized and efficient operating platform, and it puts us in a really good position to add a lot of value to the portfolios, and provide a complete solution to sellers who might find the space less attractive in light of the recent changes. Our expectations are that this will play out over the next 12 to 18 months as people really look to the long-term plans. We are seeing an uptick in activity. In terms of seller expectations and pricing, we haven't seen anything trade. It's a little bit early to nail those numbers down, but we would expect the sellers to become realistic with what we can offer them over time.
Speaker #5: As a result of that, coupled with the importance of an optimized and efficient operating platform, it puts us in a really good position to add a lot of value to the portfolios and provide a complete solution to sellers who might find the space less attractive in light of the recent changes.
Speaker #5: Our expectation is that this will play out over the next 12 to 18 months, as people really look to their long-term plans. But we are seeing an uptick in activity.
Speaker #5: In terms of seller expectations and pricing, we haven't seen anything trade yet. It's a little bit early to nail those numbers down, but we would expect sellers to become realistic with what we can offer them over time.
Speaker #1: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Adam Kramer with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Adam Kramer with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Adam Kramer with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed.
Speaker #6: Hey, guys. Thanks for the time. Just wanted to talk about sort of the sequential improvement in new lease. From, I guess, from the quarter to July, just sort of what's driving that overall?
Adam Kramer: Hey, guys. Thanks for the time. Just wanted to talk about sort of the sequential improvement in new lease, from, I guess, from the quarter to July. Just sort of what's driving that overall? Is it sort of feeling better about occupancy, is it concessions, just general sort of simple pricing? Then I guess more broadly, if you think about sort of the trajectory of this peak leasing season, how would you sort of frame the way it played out, I guess, relative to expectations or, relative to "normal year," relative to last year? Just sort of wondering how seasonals ended up playing out, because I think there were some concerns to start the year given sort of what transpired a year ago.
Adam Kramer: Hey, guys. Thanks for the time. Just wanted to talk about sort of the sequential improvement in new lease, from, I guess, from the quarter to July. Just sort of what's driving that overall? Is it sort of feeling better about occupancy, is it concessions, just general sort of simple pricing? Then I guess more broadly, if you think about sort of the trajectory of this peak leasing season, how would you sort of frame the way it played out, I guess, relative to expectations or, relative to "normal year," relative to last year? Just sort of wondering how seasonals ended up playing out, because I think there were some concerns to start the year given sort of what transpired a year ago.
Speaker #6: Is it sort of feeling better about occupancy? Is concessions just general, sort of simple pricing? And then, I guess more broadly, if you think about the trajectory of this peak leasing season, how would you frame the way it played out, I guess, relative to expectations, or relative to a quote-unquote "normal year," or relative to last year?
Speaker #6: Just sort of wondering how seasonality ended up playing out, because I think there were some concerns to start the year given what transpired a year ago.
Speaker #4: Yeah, thanks. Thanks, Adam, appreciate the question. I think the shape of the season played out largely like we expected, from the standpoint that we saw a healthy level of demand that continues for SFR, much like we've seen in previous years.
Chris Lau: Yeah. Thanks, Adam. Appreciate the question. I think the shape of the season played out largely like we expected from the standpoint that we saw a healthy level of demand that continues for SFR, much like we've seen in previous years.
Lincoln Palmer: Yeah. Thanks, Adam. Appreciate the question. I think the shape of the season played out largely like we expected from the standpoint that we saw a healthy level of demand that continues for SFR, much like we've seen in previous years. I think the thing that made this year a little bit different was a couple things. One was, we are seeing this demand set against a modestly improving supply picture. That is encouraging, given what we were hoping for at the beginning of the year. The second thing that is really moving the length of the season into July and the performance you saw there was just a strong seasonal execution by our teams.
Speaker #4: I think the thing that made this year a little bit different was a couple of things. One was, we're seeing this demand set against a modestly improving supply picture.
Bryan Smith: I think the thing that made this year a little bit different was a couple things. One was, we are seeing this demand set against a modestly improving supply picture. That is encouraging, given what we were hoping for at the beginning of the year. The second thing that is really moving the length of the season into July and the performance you saw there was just a strong seasonal execution by our teams. Our field teams were able to, despite having the largest number of expirations for the year in June, turn homes quickly, get them back to market, deliver them to our leasing teams, lease them quickly, and take advantage of the demand that existed in the peak season.
Speaker #4: And that's encouraging, given what we were hoping for at the beginning of the year. The second thing that's really moving the length of the season into July, and the performance you saw there, was just strong seasonal execution by our teams.
Speaker #4: Our field teams were able to, despite having the largest number of expirations for the year in June, turn homes quickly, get them back to market, deliver them to our leasing teams, have them lease them quickly, and take advantage of the demand that existed in the peak season.
Lincoln Palmer: Our field teams were able to, despite having the largest number of expirations for the year in June, turn homes quickly, get them back to market, deliver them to our leasing teams, lease them quickly, and take advantage of the demand that existed in the peak season. I think that is the thing that we have done differently this year, as we have really tried to match our activity, our expirations, and other business operations to the demand that exists in the season. Largely playing out like we have expected and planned for, and we are looking forward to continuing to seeing benefits from that plan in the H2 of the year.
Speaker #4: And I think that's the thing that we've done differently this year, as we've really tried to match our activity, our expirations, and other business operations to the demand that exists in the season.
Bryan Smith: I think that is the thing that we have done differently this year, as we have really tried to match our activity, our expirations, and other business operations to the demand that exists in the season. Largely playing out like we have expected and planned for, and we are looking forward to continuing to seeing benefits from that plan in the H2 of the year.
Speaker #4: So, largely playing out like we've expected and planned for, and we're looking forward to continuing to see benefits from that plan in the back half of the year.
Speaker #1: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of David Siegel with Green Street Advisors. Please proceed.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of David Siegel with Green Street Advisors. Please proceed.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of David Siegel with Green Street Advisors. Please proceed.
Speaker #5: All right, thank you. Given the guidance in the year-to-date performance, it seems to imply a slowdown in revenue growth in the second half versus the first half.
David Siegel: Hi, thank you. Given the guidance in the year-to-date performance, it seems to imply a slowdown in revenue growth in the H2 versus the H1. I appreciate all the color on the leasing building blocks, but I just want to try to understand what is really driving that expectation for decelerating revenue growth from AMH?
David Segall: Hi, thank you. Given the guidance in the year-to-date performance, it seems to imply a slowdown in revenue growth in the H2 versus the H1. I appreciate all the color on the leasing building blocks, but I just want to try to understand what is really driving that expectation for decelerating revenue growth from AMH?
Speaker #5: And I appreciate all the color on the leasing building blocks, but I just want to try to understand what's really driving that expectation for a decelerating revenue growth trend.
Speaker #4: Yeah. Morning, David. Chris here. A couple of things there. One, the main thing that I would point out is, keep in mind the timing of earn-in.
Chris Lau: Morning, David. Chris here. A couple things there. One, the main thing that I would point out is keep in mind the timing of earn in rolling from last year into this year. That's one of the things that we talked about at the beginning of 2026. If you think about blended spreads in 2025 being in the mid threes plus, that's a contributor to this year's overall revenues growth. Obviously, earn in from last year is going to contribute into the H1 of this year, and you can see that being a little bit of a factor in terms of H1 versus H2 of 2026 revenue growth. More broadly, I would say things in general are playing out pretty similar to what our range of expectations were at the start of the year.
Chris Lau: Morning, David. Chris here. A couple things there. One, the main thing that I would point out is keep in mind the timing of earn in rolling from last year into this year. That's one of the things that we talked about at the beginning of 2026. If you think about blended spreads in 2025 being in the mid threes plus, that's a contributor to this year's overall revenues growth. Obviously, earn in from last year is going to contribute into the H1 of this year, and you can see that being a little bit of a factor in terms of H1 versus H2 of 2026 revenue growth. More broadly, I would say things in general are playing out pretty similar to what our range of expectations were at the start of the year.
Speaker #4: Rolling from last year into this year, and that's one of the things that we talked about at the beginning of 2026. And if you think about blended spreads in 2025 being in the mid-3s plus, that's a contributor to this year's overall revenue growth.
Speaker #4: But obviously, earn-in from last year is going to contribute to the first six months of this year. And you can see that being a little bit of a factor in terms of first half versus second half of 2026 revenue growth.
Speaker #4: But more broadly, I would say things in general are playing out pretty similarly to what our range of expectations was at the start of the year.
Speaker #4: And I know Lincoln walks through the pieces, but the pieces that he walked through—occupancy so far—are very similar to what we were expecting.
Chris Lau: I know Lincoln walked through the pieces, but the pieces that he walked through, occupancy so far, very similar to what we are expecting. New lease performance almost dead on top of what we were contemplating at the beginning of the year. Renewals, like Lincoln was talking about running in the low threes, a touch better than what we were expecting at the start of the year. Keep in mind, we're talking about tens of basis points on a portion of our leases, and we still have a lot of work left to do. Nonetheless, we're very optimistic that our teams will continue to execute at the highest level.
Chris Lau: I know Lincoln walked through the pieces, but the pieces that he walked through, occupancy so far, very similar to what we are expecting. New lease performance almost dead on top of what we were contemplating at the beginning of the year. Renewals, like Lincoln was talking about running in the low threes, a touch better than what we were expecting at the start of the year. Keep in mind, we're talking about tens of basis points on a portion of our leases, and we still have a lot of work left to do. Nonetheless, we're very optimistic that our teams will continue to execute at the highest level. As we think about the year, the setup is playing out really nicely, and especially on that renewal side, it's not totally out of the question that we could land the full year a touch above the mid.
Speaker #4: New lease performance is almost dead on top of what we were contemplating at the beginning of the year. And then renewals, like Lincoln was talking about, are running in the low threes—a touch better than what we were expecting at the start of the year.
Speaker #4: But keep in mind, we're talking about tens of basis points on a portion of our leases. And we still have a lot of work left to do.
Speaker #4: But nonetheless, we're very optimistic that our teams will continue to execute at the highest level, and as they think about the year, the setup is playing out really, really nicely.
Chris Lau: As we think about the year, the setup is playing out really nicely, and especially on that renewal side, it's not totally out of the question that we could land the full year a touch above the mid.
Speaker #4: And especially on that renewal side, it's not totally out of the question that we could land at the full year a touch above the mid.
Speaker #1: Thank you. Our next question comes from Jesse Letterman with Zelman & Associates. Please proceed.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jesse Lederman with Zelman & Associates. Please proceed.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jesse Lederman with Zelman & Associates. Please proceed.
Speaker #5: Hey, thanks for taking the question. I have a question on the development platform trajectory. You've framed keeping it in motion in your highest conviction markets as being really mission-critical.
Jesse Lederman: Hey, thanks for taking the question. Question on the development platform trajectory. You framed keeping it in motion in your highest conviction markets as being really mission critical. Even though you've had a disposition run rate that's tracking ahead of plan, like you discussed, you've left the full year guide unchanged, which implies the H2 deliveries are going to be among the lowest for any half since the program really began to ramp. Given your matched funding, it seems like you do have capacity to do more. The question is why hold the delivery guide flat rather than raise it? Is it kind of deliberately throttling capital elsewhere or conservatism? Any info on that would be great. Thank you.
Jesse Lederman: Hey, thanks for taking the question. Question on the development platform trajectory. You framed keeping it in motion in your highest conviction markets as being really mission critical. Even though you've had a disposition run rate that's tracking ahead of plan, like you discussed, you've left the full year guide unchanged, which implies the H2 deliveries are going to be among the lowest for any half since the program really began to ramp. Given your matched funding, it seems like you do have capacity to do more. The question is why hold the delivery guide flat rather than raise it? Is it kind of deliberately throttling capital elsewhere or conservatism? Any info on that would be great. Thank you.
Speaker #5: But even though you've had a disposition run rate that's tracking ahead of plan, like you discussed, you've left the full-year guide unchanged, which implies the second half deliveries are going to be among the lowest for any half since the program really began to ramp.
Speaker #5: And so given your match funding, it seems like you do have capacity to do more. So the question is, why hold the delivery guide flat rather than raise it? Is it kind of deliberately throttling capital elsewhere, or conservatism?
Speaker #5: Any info on that would be great. Thank you.
Speaker #4: Yeah, thanks, Jesse. This is Brian. Development is a little bit different than some of the other acquisition channels in the past. If you go back to kind of the history of the company, we had the ability to almost instantly change our pace of closings on auctions and MLS and so forth.
Bryan Smith: Yeah. Thanks, Jesse. This is Bryan. Development is a little bit different than some of the other acquisition channels in the past. If you go back to kind of the history of the company, we had the ability to almost instantly change our pace of closings on auctions and MLS and so forth. Development requires a plan and a strategy, and it's a little bit less nimble in the short term. We put together a strong plan this year for 1,900 deliveries, keeping all of the markets in a healthy position with land replenishments that allowed us to retain that optionality as the cost of capital environment improves at some point, or there are other factors that make the development yields more attractive. We really like the level that we're delivering at this year.
Bryan Smith: Yeah. Thanks, Jesse. This is Bryan. Development is a little bit different than some of the other acquisition channels in the past. If you go back to kind of the history of the company, we had the ability to almost instantly change our pace of closings on auctions and MLS and so forth. Development requires a plan and a strategy, and it's a little bit less nimble in the short term. We put together a strong plan this year for 1,900 deliveries, keeping all of the markets in a healthy position with land replenishments that allowed us to retain that optionality as the cost of capital environment improves at some point, or there are other factors that make the development yields more attractive. We really like the level that we're delivering at this year.
Speaker #4: But development requires a plan and a strategy, and it's a little bit less nimble in the short term. We put together a strong plan this year.
Speaker #4: For 1,900 deliveries, keeping all of the markets in a healthy position with land replenishments that allowed us to retain that optionality, as the cost of capital environment improves at some point or there are other factors that make the development yields more attractive.
Speaker #4: We really like the level that we're delivering at this year. The back half of the year, being a little bit less than the first half, is indicative of the strategy of delivering homes into stronger demand environments.
Bryan Smith: The H2 of the year being a little bit less than the H1 of the year is indicative of the strategy of delivering homes into stronger demand environments. You can see that playing out in the success that we've had in lease-up on new deliveries into this year. We're pleased with our strategy, and we're going to continue to implement it with a little bit more of a balance of deliveries to the H1.
Bryan Smith: The H2 of the year being a little bit less than the H1 of the year is indicative of the strategy of delivering homes into stronger demand environments. You can see that playing out in the success that we've had in lease-up on new deliveries into this year. We're pleased with our strategy, and we're going to continue to implement it with a little bit more of a balance of deliveries to the H1.
Speaker #4: And you can see that playing out in the success that we've had in lease-up on new deliveries into this year. So we're pleased with our strategy, and we're going to continue to implement it, with a little bit more of a balance of deliveries to the first half.
Speaker #1: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Michael Goldsmith with UBS. Please proceed.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Michael Goldsmith with UBS. Please proceed.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Michael Goldsmith with UBS. Please proceed.
Speaker #6: Good afternoon. Thanks a lot for taking my question. I'm here with Amy Proband. The peak leasing season got off to a slow start, but it seems to have been extended into early July.
Michael Goldsmith: Good afternoon. Thanks a lot for taking my question. I'm here with Amy. The peak leasing season got off to a slow start, but it seems to have been extended into early July. Is there anything to point to in terms of customer behavior which you think has led to this shift?
Michael Goldsmith: Good afternoon. Thanks a lot for taking my question. I'm here with Amy. The peak leasing season got off to a slow start, but it seems to have been extended into early July. Is there anything to point to in terms of customer behavior which you think has led to this shift?
Speaker #6: Is there anything to point to, in terms of customer behavior, which you think has led to this shift?
Speaker #4: Thanks for the question, appreciate it. This is Lincoln. There's nothing to point to in terms of customer behavior necessarily. I think, as I mentioned before, the peak season had more to do with, again, the slightly improving supply environment and just execution by the teams.
Lincoln Palmer: Thanks for the question. Appreciate it. This is Lincoln. There's nothing to point to in terms of customer behavior necessarily. I think, as I mentioned before, the peak season had more to do with, again, the slightly improving supply environment, and just execution by the teams, and the setup of our plan for the year. We planned to capture as much as demand as we could while the season lasted. That's reflected in the higher number of expirations in the first part of the year. As that played out this year, we saw the same trajectory that we would normally see in most years, with the peak of demand occurring in May and June.
Lincoln Palmer: Thanks for the question. Appreciate it. This is Lincoln. There's nothing to point to in terms of customer behavior necessarily. I think, as I mentioned before, the peak season had more to do with, again, the slightly improving supply environment, and just execution by the teams, and the setup of our plan for the year. We planned to capture as much as demand as we could while the season lasted. That's reflected in the higher number of expirations in the first part of the year. As that played out this year, we saw the same trajectory that we would normally see in most years, with the peak of demand occurring in May and June.
Speaker #4: And the setup of our plan for the year: we planned to capture as much demand as we could while the season lasted.
Speaker #4: That's reflected in the higher number of expirations in the first part of the year. As that played out this year, we saw the same trajectory that we would normally see in most years, with the peak of demand occurring in May and June.
Speaker #4: And then, as we moved into July, we just saw a very nice extension of the results, given that we were able to turn those homes quickly and lease the homes quickly, giving us a nice extension of that performance.
Lincoln Palmer: As we moved into July, we just saw a very nice extension of the results, given that we were able to turn those homes quickly, lease the homes quickly, giving us a nice extension of that performance, and a setup into the H2 that's going to be beneficial from an occupancy and rate standpoint. I wouldn't say anything large on the consumer side. Again, just a little bit better supply and the same foot traffic competing for lower inventory.
Lincoln Palmer: As we moved into July, we just saw a very nice extension of the results, given that we were able to turn those homes quickly, lease the homes quickly, giving us a nice extension of that performance, and a setup into the H2 that's going to be beneficial from an occupancy and rate standpoint. I wouldn't say anything large on the consumer side. Again, just a little bit better supply and the same foot traffic competing for lower inventory.
Speaker #4: And a setup into the back half that's going to be beneficial from an occupancy and rate standpoint. So I wouldn't say anything large on the consumer side.
Speaker #4: Again, just a little bit better supply, and the same foot traffic competing for lower inventory.
Speaker #1: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Brad Hefner with RBC Capital Markets. Please proceed.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Brad Heffern with RBC Capital Markets. Please proceed.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Brad Heffern with RBC Capital Markets. Please proceed.
Speaker #5: Yeah. Thanks, everybody. Lots for future delivery have obviously been declining for some time. I know part of that was the relative attractiveness of the yields versus the repurchase.
Brad Heffern: Yeah. Thanks, everybody. Lots for future delivery have obviously been declining for some time. I know part of that was the relative attractiveness of the yields versus the repurchase, and I'm sure the regulatory uncertainty had you pausing on additions as well. You did mention the yields looking better and maybe seeing some loosening on the land side. I'm wondering, should we see those lots sort of stabilize now that the regulatory stuff is out of the way? Should they go up? Will they continue to drift lower? What's the right sizing for that program?
Brad Heffern: Yeah. Thanks, everybody. Lots for future delivery have obviously been declining for some time. I know part of that was the relative attractiveness of the yields versus the repurchase, and I'm sure the regulatory uncertainty had you pausing on additions as well. You did mention the yields looking better and maybe seeing some loosening on the land side. I'm wondering, should we see those lots sort of stabilize now that the regulatory stuff is out of the way? Should they go up? Will they continue to drift lower? What's the right sizing for that program?
Speaker #5: And I'm sure the regulatory uncertainty had you pausing on additions as well. You did mention the yields looking better, and maybe seeing some loosening on the land side.
Speaker #5: So, I'm wondering, should we see those lots sort of stabilize now that the regulatory stuff is out of the way? Should they go up?
Speaker #5: Will they continue to drift lower? What's the right sizing for that program?
Speaker #4: Yeah, thanks, Brad. This is Brian. You're exactly right. We're expecting to replenish land through the balance of the year. I think it was really quiet on the land acquisition side in the first half.
Bryan Smith: Yeah. Thanks, Brad. This is Bryan. You're exactly right. We're expecting to replenish land through the balance of the year. I think it was really quiet on the land acquisition side at the H1. The question, too, is what size pipeline do you want relative to your future deliveries, and is it three years, three and a half years of supply? Part of that has to do with the type of land that you're buying. One of the nice things that we've seen of late is Värde opportunities. Opportunities to purchase land that's further down the line on development, which would allow us to effectively shorten the pipeline and deliver into vertical and deliver finished homes more quickly. There's a little bit of a different mix going forward. No, you're exactly right. We plan to add some land.
Bryan Smith: Yeah. Thanks, Brad. This is Bryan. You're exactly right. We're expecting to replenish land through the balance of the year. I think it was really quiet on the land acquisition side at the H1. The question, too, is what size pipeline do you want relative to your future deliveries, and is it three years, three and a half years of supply? Part of that has to do with the type of land that you're buying. One of the nice things that we've seen of late is Värde opportunities. Opportunities to purchase land that's further down the line on development, which would allow us to effectively shorten the pipeline and deliver into vertical and deliver finished homes more quickly. There's a little bit of a different mix going forward. No, you're exactly right. We plan to add some land.
Speaker #4: And then question two is: what size pipeline do you want relative to your future deliveries? And is it three years, three and a half years of supply?
Speaker #4: Part of that has to do with the type of land that you're buying. One of the nice things that we've seen of late is VDL opportunities—opportunities to purchase land that's further down the line on development, which would allow us to effectively shorten the pipeline and deliver into vertical and deliver finished homes more quickly.
Speaker #4: So there's a little bit of a different mix going forward, but no, you're exactly right. We plan to add some land, and the pipeline has been reduced and rebalanced in some ways.
Bryan Smith: The pipeline has been reduced and rebalanced in some ways to kind of reflect the current environment. Going forward, we're seeing some really good deals, and we'll be adding to that through the balance of the year.
Bryan Smith: The pipeline has been reduced and rebalanced in some ways to kind of reflect the current environment. Going forward, we're seeing some really good deals, and we'll be adding to that through the balance of the year.
Speaker #4: To kind of reflect the current environment, but going forward, we're seeing some really good deals, and we'll be adding to that through the balance of the year.
Speaker #1: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Peter Amberowitz with Deutsche Bank. Please proceed.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Peter Abramowitz with Deutsche Bank. Please proceed.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Peter Abramowitz with Deutsche Bank. Please proceed.
Speaker #5: Yeah, thanks for the time. I just wanted to go back to the non-same-store NOI contribution of the guidance raise, and specifically the lease-up.
Peter Abramowitz: Yeah. Thanks for the time. I just wanted to go back to the non-same store NOI contribution of the guidance raise and specifically the lease-up. Could you talk about maybe some of the markets where lease-up is exceeding your expectations on development, and kind of the delta versus what you were expecting for the year? Has there been a unifying theme in terms of whether it feels like the upside to your expectations has been more supply or demand driven? Thanks.
Peter Abramowitz: Yeah. Thanks for the time. I just wanted to go back to the non-same store NOI contribution of the guidance raise and specifically the lease-up. Could you talk about maybe some of the markets where lease-up is exceeding your expectations on development, and kind of the delta versus what you were expecting for the year? Has there been a unifying theme in terms of whether it feels like the upside to your expectations has been more supply or demand driven? Thanks.
Speaker #5: Could you talk about maybe some of the markets where lease-up is exceeding your expectations on development? And kind of the delta versus what you're expecting for the year—has there been a unifying theme in terms of whether it feels like the upside to your expectations has been more supply or demand driven?
Speaker #5: Thanks.
Speaker #4: Hey, Peter. Appreciate the question. Chris here, and I'll start, and Lincoln can fill in if helpful. Actually, as we think about that initial lease-up of recently delivered homes outside of the same home pool, the really encouraging part there is that there isn't a single market that stands out.
Chris Lau: Hey, Peter. Appreciate the question. Chris here, I'll start and Lincoln can fill in if helpful. Actually, as we think about that initial lease-up of recently delivered homes outside of the same home pool, the really encouraging part there is that there isn't a single market that stands out. They really all stand out, and that is a reflection of the team's level of execution across the board. If there is a, you used the term unifying theme, the one unifying theme across the board is our ability and the team's ability to actually pre-lease homes before they're actually finished from a construction standpoint, which accelerates, obviously, the lease-up timing. If you want an interesting statistic that really kind of demonstrates it across the board, in the first 6 months of this year, we actually executed more initial leases than actual homes that were delivered.
Chris Lau: Hey, Peter. Appreciate the question. Chris here, I'll start and Lincoln can fill in if helpful. Actually, as we think about that initial lease-up of recently delivered homes outside of the same home pool, the really encouraging part there is that there isn't a single market that stands out. They really all stand out, and that is a reflection of the team's level of execution across the board. If there is a, you used the term unifying theme, the one unifying theme across the board is our ability and the team's ability to actually pre-lease homes before they're actually finished from a construction standpoint, which accelerates, obviously, the lease-up timing. If you want an interesting statistic that really kind of demonstrates it across the board, in the first 6 months of this year, we actually executed more initial leases than actual homes that were delivered.
Speaker #4: They really all stand out, and that is a reflection of the team's level of execution across the board. And if there is a—you used the term 'unifying theme'—the one unifying theme across the board is our ability, and the team's ability, to actually pre-lease homes before they're actually finished from a construction standpoint, which obviously accelerates the lease-up timing.
Speaker #4: And if you want an interesting statistic that really kind of demonstrates it across the board, in the first six months of this year, we actually executed more initial leases than actual homes that were delivered.
Speaker #4: And that really underscores the point on pre-leasing, which means—I think Bryan mentioned this a couple of minutes ago—a meaningful portion of our deliveries for the back half have committed leases on them at this point.
Chris Lau: That really underscores the point on pre-leasing, which means, I think Bryan mentioned this a couple of minutes ago, a meaningful portion of our deliveries for the H2 of the year have already committed leases on them at this point. While we are expecting the teams to do a good job this year, to your point, in terms of upside to the guide or upside to our expectations at the start of the year, the team definitely exceeded what we were expecting at the beginning of the year, which has driven some of the upside and a portion of the guidance increase.
Chris Lau: That really underscores the point on pre-leasing, which means, I think Bryan mentioned this a couple of minutes ago, a meaningful portion of our deliveries for the H2 of the year have already committed leases on them at this point. While we are expecting the teams to do a good job this year, to your point, in terms of upside to the guide or upside to our expectations at the start of the year, the team definitely exceeded what we were expecting at the beginning of the year, which has driven some of the upside and a portion of the guidance increase.
Speaker #4: And while we are expecting the teams to do a good job this year, to your point in terms of upside to the guide or upside to our expectations at the start of the year, the team definitely exceeded what we were expecting at the beginning of the year, which has driven some of the upside and a portion of the guidance increase.
Speaker #3: And then, this is Lincoln. It's hard to overstate the importance of this program from our perspective, in that it has benefits to the company, that Chris laid out, and then benefits to the resident as well.
Lincoln Palmer: This is Lincoln. It's hard to overstate the importance of this program from our perspective in that it has benefits to the company that Chris laid out, and then benefits to the resident as well. If you imagine the ability of a resident who's typically locked into a 30-day timeline to find a home, being able to find a home 90 or 120 days out, especially if they're migrating to a new market, taking a new job in a different place. They have the ability to go and find that home on their own timeline, which matches our deliveries. They have the ability to lease a brand-new home that they may not otherwise have access to in great areas with great schools
Lincoln Palmer: This is Lincoln. It's hard to overstate the importance of this program from our perspective in that it has benefits to the company that Chris laid out, and then benefits to the resident as well. If you imagine the ability of a resident who's typically locked into a 30-day timeline to find a home, being able to find a home 90 or 120 days out, especially if they're migrating to a new market, taking a new job in a different place. They have the ability to go and find that home on their own timeline, which matches our deliveries. They have the ability to lease a brand-new home that they may not otherwise have access to in great areas with great schools
Speaker #3: If you imagine the ability of a resident who's typically locked into a 30-day timeline to find a home, being able to find a home 90 or 120 days out—especially if they're migrating to a new market, taking a new job in a different place—they have the ability to go and find that home on their own timeline, which matches our deliveries.
Speaker #3: They have the ability to lease a brand new home that they may not otherwise have access to in great areas with great schools. They have the excitement of watching that home be built and moving into a brand new home with that new home smell and the other things that would be part of the new build process.
Bryan Smith: They have the excitement of watching that home be built and moving into a brand-new home with that new home smell and the other things that would be part of the new build process at a 25% discount to what it would cost if they purchased it today. We're really proud of what we're offering, and we're committed to finding things that are both a benefit to the company and to our residents.
Lincoln Palmer: They have the excitement of watching that home be built and moving into a brand-new home with that new home smell and the other things that would be part of the new build process at a 25% discount to what it would cost if they purchased it today. We're really proud of what we're offering, and we're committed to finding things that are both a benefit to the company and to our residents.
Speaker #3: At a 25% discount to what it would cost if they purchased it today. So we're really proud of what we're offering, and we're committed to finding things that are both a benefit to the company and to our residents.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jade Rahmani with KBW. Please proceed.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jade Rahmani with KBW. Please proceed.
Speaker #1: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Jade Romney with KBW. Please proceed.
Speaker #5: Thank you. Are you seeing any opportunities to increase third-party property management? Also, are there any AI use cases you’ve found in the area of property management to make it more efficient, and perhaps maintenance more preventative, or even self-performing on the part of tenants?
Jade Rahmani: Thank you. Are you seeing any opportunities to increase third-party property management? Also, are there any AI use cases you've found in the area of property management to make it more efficient and perhaps maintenance more preventative or even self-performing on the part of tenants?
Jade Rahmani: Thank you. Are you seeing any opportunities to increase third-party property management? Also, are there any AI use cases you've found in the area of property management to make it more efficient and perhaps maintenance more preventative or even self-performing on the part of tenants?
Speaker #4: Yeah. Thanks, Jay. This is Bryan. Our views on third-party management really haven't changed as we've gone through this year. We went out and tested it, as you know, a few years back, and decided that we were better off focusing on some of the opportunities we had with development and whatnot.
Bryan Smith: Yeah. Thanks, Jade. This is Bryan. Our views on third-party management really haven't changed as we've gone through this year. We went out and tested it, as you know, a few years back and decided that we were better on focusing on some of the opportunities we had with development and whatnot. We do have the platform set up, our perspective this year, especially in light of some of the issues on the regulatory side, is that it'll be a nice tool to allow us to be a full solutions provider to any owner, any portfolio owner, who may want us to run through a disposition process on a portion of homes that we didn't want.
Bryan Smith: Yeah. Thanks, Jade. This is Bryan. Our views on third-party management really haven't changed as we've gone through this year. We went out and tested it, as you know, a few years back and decided that we were better on focusing on some of the opportunities we had with development and whatnot. We do have the platform set up, our perspective this year, especially in light of some of the issues on the regulatory side, is that it'll be a nice tool to allow us to be a full solutions provider to any owner, any portfolio owner, who may want us to run through a disposition process on a portion of homes that we didn't want.
Speaker #4: But we do have the platform set up, and our perspective this year—especially in light of some of the issues on the regulatory side—is that it’ll be a nice tool to allow us to be a full solutions provider to any owner, any portfolio owner, who may want us to run through a disposition process on a portion of homes that we didn’t want.
Speaker #4: So the example that I gave a couple of times ago was that if an owner has 1,000 houses and 500 of them fit our buy box, we can take those 500 on balance sheet if the economics work.
Bryan Smith: The example that I gave a couple of times ago was that if an owner has 1,000 houses, if 500 fit our buy box, we can take those 500 on balance sheet if the economics work. Use third-party management to manage the additional homes as appropriate through the disposition process or whatever solution fits that particular seller. We think it gives us a competitive advantage on the portfolio and consolidation front.
Bryan Smith: The example that I gave a couple of times ago was that if an owner has 1,000 houses, if 500 fit our buy box, we can take those 500 on balance sheet if the economics work. Use third-party management to manage the additional homes as appropriate through the disposition process or whatever solution fits that particular seller. We think it gives us a competitive advantage on the portfolio and consolidation front.
Speaker #4: And then use third-party management to manage the additional homes as appropriate through the disposition process, or whatever solution fits that particular seller. We think it gives us a competitive advantage on the portfolio and consolidation front.
Speaker #1: Thank you. Our last question comes from the line of Jesse Letterman with Zelman and Associates. Please proceed.
Operator: Thank you. Our last question comes to the line of Jesse Lederman with Zelman & Associates. Please proceed.
Operator: Thank you. Our last question comes to the line of Jesse Lederman with Zelman & Associates. Please proceed.
Speaker #5: Hey, thanks for taking the follow-up. Kind of on a similar vein, in terms of potential opportunities that may arise from the legislation, there seems to be an increased reliance on new construction for rental stock.
Jesse Lederman: Hey, thanks for taking the follow-up. Kind of on the similar vein in terms of potential opportunities that may arise from the legislation, seems to be an increased reliance on new construction for rental stock. I'm curious, have you ever thought of or would you consider potentially expanding the development platform to perform for others so you can generate additional revenue and also increase your capacity, which may lead to some more operating leverage on your own developments? Thank you again.
Jesse Lederman: Hey, thanks for taking the follow-up. Kind of on the similar vein in terms of potential opportunities that may arise from the legislation, seems to be an increased reliance on new construction for rental stock. I'm curious, have you ever thought of or would you consider potentially expanding the development platform to perform for others so you can generate additional revenue and also increase your capacity, which may lead to some more operating leverage on your own developments? Thank you again.
Speaker #5: So, I'm curious—have you ever thought of, or would you consider, potentially expanding the development platform to perform for others so you can generate additional revenue and also increase your capacity, which may lead to some more operating leverage on your own developments?
Speaker #5: Thank you again.
Speaker #4: Yeah, thanks, Jesse. This is Bryan. Yeah, exactly. We're an entrepreneurial group. We've been in discussions for a few building opportunities that could lead to third-party management in the interim, to ultimately acquisition opportunities.
Bryan Smith: Yeah. Thanks, Jesse. This is Bryan. Yeah, exactly. We're an entrepreneurial group. We've been in discussions for fee building opportunities that could lead to third-party management in the interim to ultimately acquisition opportunities. We're open to that. We don't have any deals to announce today. It's an interesting option for us for the exact reasons that you detailed.
Bryan Smith: Yeah. Thanks, Jesse. This is Bryan. Yeah, exactly. We're an entrepreneurial group. We've been in discussions for fee building opportunities that could lead to third-party management in the interim to ultimately acquisition opportunities. We're open to that. We don't have any deals to announce today. It's an interesting option for us for the exact reasons that you detailed.
Speaker #4: We're open to that. We don't have any deals to announce today, but it's an interesting option for us for the exact reasons that you detailed.
Speaker #1: Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'd like to pass it back to management for any closing remarks.
Operator: Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'd like to pass it back to management for any closing remarks.
Operator: Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'd like to pass it back to management for any closing remarks.
Speaker #4: Yeah, thank you for your time today. We really appreciate the continued interest in AMH and look forward to speaking with you next quarter.
Bryan Smith: Yeah. Thank you for your time today. We really appreciate the continued interest in AMH and look forward to speaking with you next quarter.
Bryan Smith: Yeah. Thank you for your time today. We really appreciate the continued interest in AMH and look forward to speaking with you next quarter.
Operator: This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.
Operator: This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.