UDR, Inc. (NYSE:UDR) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Page 4 of 18

And so you kind of roll all those up, and you kind of get to a little bit lower expectation than typical. I think Mike talked about needing 2.5% blends. At this point, given we know already now January, February, we only need 2% blends the rest of the year, which is, call it, 150, 200 basis points below historical averages for those 10 months. So we’ve clearly assumed a little bit more of a lower-than-typical dynamic from a macroeconomic standpoint to get to those guidance numbers.

Daniel Tricarico: Great. Thanks for that. A quick follow-up. So you look at new versus renewal pricing in the fourth quarter. It’s a noticeably wide gap for most markets. And, Mike, you gave helpful sensitivity in your opening remarks for 2023, but at what point do you see renewals converge to new lease pricing or is there an expectation maybe to meet in the middle as new lease pricing accelerates? Any thoughts on that dynamic and how you see it playing out for the year?

Mike Lacy: That’s a good question. What we’re seeing today is it’s starting to converge a little bit as we look out into February and March. My expectation is probably by 3Q, you start to see it come down to 100, 200 basis points. Because what we are experiencing and what we expect market rents to continue to increase as we go into leasing season. And we are eating away at that loss to lease. So our renewal growth should come down a little bit, and I think we will probably meet in the middle somewhere.

Daniel Tricarico: Great, thanks.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Austin Wurschmidt with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Austin Wurschmidt: Yes. Thanks, guys. Just want to touch a little bit on the model. And I was curious if there were any specific periods that you’d point us to where you back tested the model where you saw some significant or notable job losses, but during a period of still attractive wage growth that resulted in market rent growth holding positive?

Joe Fisher: Yes. We’d have to go back and take a little bit more of a deep dive on that. We’ve got the scenarios, but not in front of us. Yes. What comes to mind is if you go back to €˜05, €˜06, and look at the shift to a readership nation, despite the magnitude of job losses, you did see overall rent growth and revenue growth, but we do some extent because even during that dramatic period of time, I think our NOI was down roughly 10%, both as a company and as an industry. So that’s with fairly draconian jobs outlook because you did have another tailwind there from a demographic and household formation perspective. So we’d have to take a little bit deeper dive and look at that, but I do think just being in a needs-based industry, one in which individuals are going to need shelter, and this is the cheapest cost of shelter in this environment relative to single family, you’re going to have any incremental housing that’s formed really biased over into our part of the world.

So I think it’s going to be a pretty big tailwind combined with wages going forward.

Austin Wurschmidt: That’s helpful. Appreciate the comments. And then, Joe, going to your comments on kind of evaluating joint venture opportunities, would you characterize these as more one-off opportunities? Or are you guys looking to €“ or would you consider something more significant like you did historically with MetLife or maybe other partners in the past?

Page 4 of 18