American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE:AMH) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Haendel St. Juste: Hey, I guess good morning to you guys out there. I guess a couple of quick questions from me here. Chris, you had mentioned the preferred on your list of potential uses for this year, they’re yielding, I think, over 6%. How are you thinking about that? Any scenario in which you contemplate buying those in this year? Thanks.

Christopher Lau: Yes. Good question, Haendel. Look, it’s something that we watch very closely is something we were watching throughout last year. And yes, you’re correct. We have a couple of series that either callable or will become callable. It is a simple function of relative considerations compared to current cost of capital. Given some of the volatility in the capital markets currently and where new issue pricing is. I think it’s probably lower likelihood that we would be calling those in. But keep in mind that, that is one of the great aspects of preferred is that they are truly perpetual capital with one-way optionality to redeem them after we get past call dates. And so, we will watch it closely. The optionality doesn’t go away. And when we find the right time in the marketplace relative to current capital market pricing and considerations, we’ll look for the best opportunity to take those out.

Haendel St. Juste: Got it. Got it. I appreciate that. I wanted to ask you a follow-up on the development. You guys mentioned the lower cost in lumber and the expected improvement in yields and the timeline later this year, next year. Where are you underwriting new development yields for new starts today versus the 6% bog you guys have talked about in the past? Thanks.

David Singelyn: Yes. So, today, when we are underwriting new acquisitions and new developments where you look at our cost of capital today. And so, we would be underwriting in the high 6%s or 7%. Keep in mind, if you look at 2022 fourth quarter, you’ll see that we are being patient and disciplined, I believe, that we acquired one lot or one track of land, I believe it’s 180 lots. That’s because at this point, our underwriting, we need to get land, land development cost and vertical costs in line. We extended many, many land contracts. We’ve attempted to renegotiate many land contracts. We obviously did on one to get it into an acceptable price range. Let me just — just so there’s clarity on these numbers. So, we don’t have this expectation.

The land that we are developing today that delivers in 2023, that land was acquired in prior years, the land development was done in prior years. That cost is incurred. What we are seeing in vertical cost on lumber was one of the items that you mentioned, but also all the other vertical costs. We have seen benefits in the last few months, especially from peak pricing back in the second quarter. Lumber had peak pricing in May. Lumber’s pricing was $1,250. Today, it’s in the low $400s per 1,000 board feet. The future is on the Random Lengths expects that to continue throughout the year. However, the way development works is that it’s about a six-month — five to six-month time period to do vertical construction, but you contract for your supplies, your labor, et cetera, prior to that.

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