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| And while we expect certain industry headwinds to persist this year, we are confident in our portfolio's solid renter demand fundamentals and our ability to implement our strategic initiatives, which will strengthen our business over the near term and long term |
| Unit lease rates have improved 220 basis points in the first quarter 2024 to date due to more favorable demand and the reduced use of concessions |
| I'm proud of the results the IRT team achieved in the fourth quarter and full year of 2023 |
| The advancements made over the past year have allowed us to be more efficient and effective, and we will continue to innovate and explore further opportunities to strengthen our performance |
| This will put us in a position of strength to capitalize on an eventual market recovery in the back half of 2024 and within 2025 |
| Overall, we are optimistic as we have the right assets in the right markets that continue to perform well, supported by strong employment growth and population migration |
| And really it helps our teams save time as well as prevents the opportunity for the -- submitting an application |
| This enabled us to move more quickly and adapt to an evolving market conditions, improving occupancy and maximizing rent growth |
| We have a strong operations team, including very experienced leaders with a track record of performance |
| These efforts are positively impacting our results, as evidenced by our 94.9% average occupancy at our non-value-add communities in the fourth quarter of 2023 |
| But we've been we've been piloting the technology since October, and we've already seen a really good benefit where it's kind of pointing out IDs that are clearly fraudulent and they're not even when -- since we do it at tour, those folks don't even get a chance to tour the units |
| This strategy will further improve our unencumbered asset ratios as we work towards achieving an investment grade rating |
| We continue to see strong demand at these communities, which attracts value-driven residents seeking well-maintained communities that offer similar amenities and finishes to Class A properties, but at a lower price point |
| Despite near-term market conditions, we expect to deliver growth in 2024, driven by a combination of occupancy gains and rental rate growth |
| We are seeing a meaningful positive improvement in our ability to identify potential fraud |
| And as we mentioned, or as Mike mentioned in the call, we've already implemented a better ID screening that really kind of pinpoint identify the ID fraud since that is so prevalent in some of these days in some of our markets like Atlanta, and we're excited about what that's going to have for the portfolio for the year |
| Looking back at the fourth quarter, we achieved the same store average occupancy rate of 94.5%, a 70-basis point improvement year-over-year |
| And so we look to see that be a significant benefit for us this year |
| For the fourth quarter, our same-store portfolio NOI grew 3.3% year-over-year, supported by a 70-basis point increase in average occupancy to 94.5% and a 2.4% increase in rental rates |
| So a combination of all of those things, spending more on advertising on the front end, very aggressive on our retention strategy, we are confident in our numbers for occupancy |
| These results reflected our ongoing efforts to achieve sustainable operating gains across our entire portfolio |
| For the full year, our portfolio average rental rate increased 6.4%, supporting a 5.7% increase in revenue |
| Our portfolio average rental rate increased 2.4% in Q4, contributing to 3.7% year-over-year property revenue growth for the quarter |
| So we will see that it will normalize over the season as we see higher expirations based on seasonality, and we're confident in that number to be achieved |
| For the full year, core FFO per share increased to $1.15 per share, up from $1.8 per share or 6.5% growth year-over-year |
| I think our value-add are very well to the current market state when we have that opportunity to provide a product that is similar to, at a value rate of that Class A at a lower price point |
| This growth was led by a 2.4% increase in average monthly rental rate to $1,551 per month and a 70-basis point increase in average occupancy during Q4, both as compared to Q4 of 2022 |
| In particular, we enhanced the speed of our local market pricing feedback from our communities to the revenue management team fully established our 24/7 call center, significantly expanded our sales training program and continued to maximize lead to lease conversion |
| As I wrap up my remarks, I just want to reiterate my confidence in IRT's business model and strategy, which was constructed to succeed during all market cycles |
| The reorganization implemented last year has paid off, as evidenced by our year-over-year growth of 5.7% in full year same-store portfolio NOI and 6.5% of core FFO per share, the latter of which came in at the high end of our guidance range |
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| This, along with lower seasonal demand and supply pressure, contributed to negative unit lease spreads in Q4 |
| Looking ahead through 2024, we expect the operating environment to remain challenging, with elevated new supply still being delivered and inflationary cost pressure persisting |
| As a result, and as Jim will discuss shortly, our guidance for 2024 assumes market rent growth of 0% to 1% this year, with new supply continuing to be a headwind |
| The Texas markets of Dallas and Austin continue to be obviously, through their reassessment process annually as well as we're expecting a little bit of additional pressure from some of the West markets like Columbus and Indy |
| If you were to look at some of the real kind of core Sunbelt markets like Atlanta, the market rent growth is actually about 10 basis points negative |
| For the full year 2023, net loss available to common shareholders was $17.2 million, down from a net income of $117.2 million in the full year of 2022 |
| Beginning with our 2023 performance update, for the fourth quarter, net loss available to common shareholders was $40.5 million, down from a net income of $33.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2022 |
| As of February 12, our first quarter to date, same-store occupancy is 94.3%, lower on a sequential basis as compared to the fourth quarter due to normal seasonality as well as the supply pressure highlighted by Scott, that is 110 basis points higher than this time last year |
| The decrease in the quarter and for the full year was a result of the previously disclosed asset impairments associated with our portfolio optimization and deleveraging strategy |
| I mean, I think it's just inflationary pressure on payroll for all the teams, both on-site, obviously in property as well as the corporate teams |
| To provide more color on deliveries, the Sunbelt region has seen unprecedented levels of new supply, and while our mainly Class B portfolio is somewhat insulated, it is not immune |
| I think it's probably slightly below that 2.1%, but I think |
| And the recent CPI reports from the Bureau of Labor statistics showed more persistent inflation than expected |
| So we have seen the impact really hit us where we were where we needed it the most |
| We expect Q1 to be slightly underneath that 2.1% and then you kind of move down throughout the year into the fourth quarter |
| The markets that are continual kind of LT issues, but continual kind of increases |
| So maybe on the competitive environment, I know last quarter there was talk about some of the merchant developers that being aggressive with concessions as the 10-year went to 5% |
| A question on property taxes |
| On these four properties, we recorded a loss on sale of $35 million |
| So we're certainly expecting that to kind of blend down a little bit as we continue to push retention into higher elements of leasing season |
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