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Public Storage (PSA -0.02%)
Q3Â 2018 Earnings Conference Call
Oct. 31, 2018, 1:00 p.m. ET
Contents:
- Prepared Remarks
- Questions and Answers
- Call Participants
Prepared Remarks:
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Public Storage Third Quarter 2018 Earnings Call. At this time all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode, and the floor will be opened for your questions following the presentation. (Operator Instructions)
It's now my pleasure to turn the floor over to Ryan Burke, Vice President of Investor Relations. Sir, you may begin.
Ryan Burke -- Vice President of Investor Relations
Thank you Holly. Good morning, good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us for the third quarter 2018 earnings call. I'm here with Joe Russell and Tom Boyle.
Before we begin, we want to remind you that all statements other than statements of historical fact included on this 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 by the statements. These risks and other factors could adversely impact our business and future results that are described in yesterday's earnings release and our reports filed with the SEC. All forward-looking statements speak only as of today, October 31st, 2018, and we assume no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
A reconciliation to GAAP of the non-GAAP financial measures we provide on this call is included in our earnings release. You can find our press release, SEC reports and audio webcast replay of this conference call on our website, publicstorage.com.
With that, I'll turn the call over to Joe.
Joseph D. Russell, Jr. -- President
Great. Thank you, Ryan, and thank you for joining us. We had a good quarter. I'd like to open the call for questions.
Questions and Answers:
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Our first question will come from Juan Sanabria with Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Juan Sanabria -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst
Hi. Good morning. Just hoping you guys could speak a little bit about your tech initiatives. I think you guys have launched a new web platform that is -- which is pretty all-encompassing. I was hoping if you can just give us an update on that and the benefits you've seen and how that should impact core results and earnings over time?
Joseph D. Russell, Jr. -- President
Okay. Thanks Juan. The front line or customer interface system you're talking to is, what we call Web Champ 2. So Web Champ 2 is both the interface from customers to employees, and it's also our inventory system. It has a number of attributes that we built over several years and fully now have implemented it throughout the Company. We started integrating it into our properties in early 2017 to finish by the end of the year. So now we're coming up to a full year of its use. And the levels of benefits tied to it are several.
First of all, it's built around a very high degree of customer interface. So it includes speed of transactions, knowledge of customer, tools that the property manager and the district manager can use to enhance not only our movement activity, but the ways in which that we -- other ways in which we can encourage our customers to stay with us. And it's also a paperless system. So, it has a number of other advantages relative to just the day-to-day operations as well.
Now, those are some of the headlines of the system. The other things that over time it will continue to give us benefits around are: the ways in which that we grow and understand customer behavior; and the knowledge that we have relative to not only existing customers, plus or minus today about 1.5 million customer, so we got a big pool of existing customers, but even year-to-date, we've moved in nearly 900,000 customers. So the system is working great. We're getting a lot of good traction out of it.
It's a system that we continue -- like I mentioned, continues to enhance over time and its inherent design included a number of things that we integrate from, again, customer sourcing, revenue management and other things, but lot of that's highly proprietary, but I can tell you that we're very pleased with the success the system is bringing to us and the efficiencies and knowledge that we continue to gain to optimize our overall environment.
Juan Sanabria -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst
Great. And then just a follow-up question if you don't mind on the occupancy front. From a same-store perspective, that's kind of declined consistently the last few quarters. At what point do you think that you'll have easier comps and that occupancy will stabilize at least from the same-store perspective?
Tom Boyle -- Chief Financial Officer
Sure, Juan. So, Tom speaking. Occupancy trends throughout the year have frankly been encouraging on a year-over-year basis. So while we've had a year-over-year declines, we've seen some positive momentum there. And the hurricanes this quarter in particular masked some of that benefit. So if you look at the occupancy at quarter-end, for example, which was down 1. 2%, if you look at the system as a whole, excluding the hurricane markets, it's down 0.8%. So there has been some positive trends there.
I think, generally speaking, we've talked about this in the past, the system as a whole before supply really started impacting us in 2016, was north of 96% occupied. And there's no question, we've been impacted by the opening of new facilities in many markets, which I won't rattle off here as you know them, where occupancy has been more impacted than otherwise. Looking at our markets this quarter, we're still looking at Los Angeles, 95.4%; San Francisco 94.8%. So very healthy occupancies. And again, systemwide, I think, we've seen some encouraging trends as we've stepped through 2018.
Juan Sanabria -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst
Thank you.
Tom Boyle -- Chief Financial Officer
Sure.
Operator
Our next question will come from the line of Jeremy Metz, BMO Capital Markets.
Jeremy Metz -- BMO Capital Markets -- Analyst
Hey, guys. Hey, Joe. Can you just give us an update on your outlook for supply here looking out into the rest of this year and 2019, and any changes? Because if I were to look at just where deals are trading in the market on a per square foot basis and I look at where you're building today, that spread remains pretty attractive and lending is more or less still available. So wondering why supply would tail off if developers can still get these sort of margins out there?
Joseph D. Russell, Jr. -- President
Okay. Yeah. Thanks, Jeremy. So, yeah, let me give you a little bit of view on the way we track supply and some of the perspective coming into an environment that really started in 2016 more or less when the supply momentum began to build and it's carried now into 2017-'18, and we feel we'll have a consistent level of deliveries going into 2019, but let me give you a little bit of color on that.
So, coming into 2016, obviously, for a decade plus or minus prior to that, overall, nationally, you might have been seeing deliveries say plus or minus in the $1 billion range. That doubled in 2016, went to $2 billion. And then, 2017, we hit $3.5 billion. 2018, our best guess is, it's going to be slightly higher, say plus or minus $4 billion. And the data we track in our top 30 markets is telling us 2019 is likely to be equivalent to 2018. So you step back and you look at, OK, that volume has been pronounced. Tom just talked about it relative to the impact that we see relative to occupancy, in total it's a plus or minus 400 to 500 properties a year, plus or minus 30 million square feet.
And the other element that we're also tracking is, a nuance that goes on with this inventory today is, overall facility size is magnifying. So, even if you also evaluate it on a market-to-market basis, on a per square foot or amount of inventory that's hitting markets, it can be heavy. So, we clearly see -- again, part of your question, developer motivation to continue to put product into some markets. The motivation is tied to, again, you can sell assets at still pretty low cap rates. There are a lot of funds and investors out there that want to own this type of product. And in the past we've talked about this ability for a developer to go out and built to 9, sell it at 5. That's plus or minus an 80% margin even with some shift down. So say, today, they build for an 8, but they can still sell it maybe at a 5, or today maybe at 6 cap, that's still a 33% margin. So there's going to be developer motivation that has not eased enough to really shift down the momentum that is there.
Now, with that said, there is a little bit of different news that's somewhat encouraging because some of the most oversupplied markets that we've seen over the last two or three years, which include Denver, Charlotte, Austin, Dallas, Houston and Tampa, we see statistically fewer deliveries going into those markets as we transition into 2019. And Jeremy, the data that I'm pointing to is really what we consider pretty accurate data because these are actual construction-in-motion projects. This isn't any thing planned. This is -- these are properties that have been launched and are in full development mode. So, again, we're seeing some benefit. Hopefully, they're in those markets that have been obviously pretty hard hit.
Now, however, again, when you look at that holistic amount of deliveries that's likely to take place in 2019, again that we think is equal plus or minus to what we've seen in 2018, we're still going to see markets like Portland, New York, Miami, Boston, West Palm Beach and Raleigh, that will likely see slightly elevated levels of deliveries. So we're monitoring those actively. We're not confused about the impact that this new inventory can have market-to-market. And again, we're going to continue to track and react to it and deal with I think overall environment that again for 2019 is probably at the end of the day somewhat similar to 2018.
Jeremy Metz -- BMO Capital Markets -- Analyst
No. That's great color. I appreciate that. Switching gears just a little bit. If I look in the move-in rates, they were down about 2% in the quarter. They were down 4% last quarter, so wondering if you could just talk about how those trended in the quarter, so far into October, and then, directionally is that a right read? Or is there a read at all on whether -- whether it would be from comps -- easier comps and better traction on rents that we see that negative spread continue to trend down or is it too early to tell?
Joseph D. Russell, Jr. -- President
So, let me take that apart. So, thanks, Jeremy. The move-in rate, as you highlighted, down 2.1% in the quarter on a square-footage basis compares to the 4.2% in the second quarter. So that is some improvement. I would say, the down 2.1% is pretty consistent through the quarter. So it's not as though you see a significant amount of variability by month. We did have in the second quarter some sale activity that drove that rate in the second quarter lower, but overall down 2.1% for the quarter.
We continue to see in many markets a more challenged move-in environment in those markets that have had new supply impacted. And in other markets where there is less supply we have more traction and ability to hold rate or even push rate. So as Joe highlighted supply as we move forward will be impacting some markets maybe less next year than it did this next year, and in other markets, may impact it more. So I think it's too early to call where move-in rates are going to go down the line, but there's no question will be impacted by supply in some markets.
The flip side is, we continue to see pretty good demand and move-in volume and the broader macro environment is good. So the job market is great, wage pressures are increasing and so our customers and consumers as a whole are putting more dollars in their pocket, which is helpful and GDP is growing well. So that's all supporting the demand situation.
Maybe taking that a step further just in general around our customer base, our existing tenant base is also being supported by those same demand factors. And that group of customers is behaving as they have in the past, if not better. So I talked a little earlier about occupancy trends improving. One of the drivers of that is actually an even stickier existing customer base and with move-outs actually declining year-over-year. So, I would say, those are the pushes and pulls. I think it's early to call where exactly we're going to end up as we move forward here, but some encouraging trends in the quarter as you highlight.
Jeremy Metz -- BMO Capital Markets -- Analyst
Great. Thanks for the time.
Joseph D. Russell, Jr. -- President
Thanks, Jeremy.
Operator
Our next question will come from the line of Ronald Kamdem, Morgan Stanley.
Ronald Kamdem -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst
Hey. Thanks for taking the time. Just going back to the existing customer base, maybe could you just talk about -- I know you mentioned in the 10-Q that increases are similar -- were similar in 3Q as it was in the previous year. Maybe can you just provide more color in terms of what type of increases are you pushing through and the reaction that you're seeing would be helpful?
Tom Boyle -- Chief Financial Officer
Sure. So the third quarter is a busy quarter for us, sending out existing tenant rate increases and those were received well by our customer base. So, no change there. In terms of the magnitude or strategies, again, no distinct changes in the strategies. We're always tweaking and testing and modifying our approach there, but generally speaking, the range of increases can be reasonably large depending on the customer, the market, the dynamics, but we point you to high-single digits as a ZIP code for average increases.
Ronald Kamdem -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst
Got it. That's helpful. And then, for the contract rents, I think you touched on this a little bit. In terms of the improvement, it sounded like -- is it fair to say that all markets improved in 3Q versus 2Q, or are there some markets that were notable standouts and so forth?
Tom Boyle -- Chief Financial Officer
No. Certainly this is a very local business. So even within a market you'll have pockets of demand that are doing much better than others. Even in a market like LA, where you'd say that's one of the strongest markets in our system, it's our largest market, we see differentials within that market, with strength in San Fernando Valley, out Eastern inland Empire, as we've been able to push move-in rates there at a higher rate than in other parts of LA. So I would take it even down further, which is that, this is a local business and the variability is meaningful. We're obviously driving pricing decisions on a very dynamic but also very local unit size level by property.
Ronald Kamdem -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst
Got it. The last one from me is, I just noticed that Portland was added to the list of challenged markets this quarter. Maybe if you can just talk about a little bit more color on maybe what's the supply outlook, when do you see that abating and so on?
Joseph D. Russell, Jr. -- President
Well, Portland is a market that again we've been talking to in the last couple of quarters as one that has been positioned for an outpaced level of inventory. And again with the construction starts that have taken hold and the amount of inventory in that market, it's certainly poised to be a challenged market in the next year or two. We have statistically a number of properties on our radar that again are examples of what I talk to, not only by quantity. There's roughly 18 properties that are coming into that market as we speak. On average they're bigger and there's more square footage that's likely to hit from a percentage on existing inventories. So if you stack rate Portland, it's near the top of the list relative to again a market that's likely to see an elevated level of stress tied to the deliveries themselves.
Now, the thing that we do have is, we have a portfolio there of about 40 properties, well located. We think we've got good competitive positioning because of the locations those specific properties have in the market, some of the new developments happening in some of the outer parts of Portland. So, again, as Tom mentioned, we have to evaluate as we do market-to-market, submarket-to-submarket, the individual impacts on how we react to all things relative to potential customer demand, the way we price, the way we encourage customers to stay with us. So the good news on that front is, we think we've got a good sustainable portfolio in the market and we're going to keep a close eye on the potential impact that this new inventory is going to have, not necessarily adjacent to or budding up to most of our existing product, but it's going to be in the market at large.
Ronald Kamdem -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst
Helpful. Thanks so much.
Joseph D. Russell, Jr. -- President
Thank you.
Operator
Our next question will come from the line of Smedes Rose, Citi.
Smedes Rose -- Citi -- Analyst
Hi. Thank you. I wanted to ask you just a little bit, as you look at acquisition opportunities if you have seen any changes in pricing or upward bias on interest rates and maybe your expectations around pricing going forward?
Tom Boyle -- Chief Financial Officer
Yes, Smedes, I would say not a big change yet. You're correct in the potential impact that higher interest rate environment could create relative to again the opportunity tied to picking up properties that certain owners may have decided to put back in the market because they don't meet either their own investment returns or they've got some level of stress that they want to deal with, but unfortunately, at the moment, we're not seeing a lot of that.
On the fringe we are seeing a few reverse inquiries, where owners have come into the market thinking that pro formas that were set, say, two or three years ago, with pretty aggressive assumptions, not only to lease up, but rates and stability of assets, may not be happening. And you can probably imagine some of the areas that that could be taking place relative to again the pressure points tied to the supply that we're talking about, but for the most part we really haven't seen a material shift yet. As I mentioned, there's still a lot of capital that wants to come into the sector, and we, at the end of the day, really can't make sense of a lot of the valuations. When you see stabilized assets in certain markets trading at $300, $400, $500 a square foot, I mean it makes no sense to us.
Now, part of the things that we've obviously shifted to and we've continued to do is, look for opportunities that are rounding out presence that we have in markets that we can increase our scale. We can buy good assets, say, plus or minus for $100 to $110 a square foot. We've seen a number of those and that's really the theme of the amount of buying that we've done year-to-date. Now, the other thing that we've pivoted to and we feel it completely validates another capital allocation decision that we made few years ago is, the investment that we're continuing to make into our development and redevelopment pipeline.
So, in like value we can and have been building generation 5, new state-of-the-art facilities for that same per square foot range, $100 $120 a square foot, these are Class A properties. They're in great locations. The lease up is going really well. If you even take a look at a market like Houston, which clearly a couple of years ago was a poster child for extreme over-development, we not only had the short-term benefit of a hurricane there, but we've continued to deliver a number of properties in that market strategically. And if you look at the portfolio that we've built and delivered there and it's nine properties, say over the last 12 to 18 months, lease up is going very well and this isn't all hurricane related. It's also just related to core demand that we're seeing in sub-markets of that particular market.
So, again, until we start seeing again some interesting opportunities, we're going to continue to be very disciplined in the way that we approach the acquisition environment.
Smedes Rose -- Citi -- Analyst
Thanks. That's super helpful. And maybe just on that, you talked a fair amount about development in the levels of dollar spend. I'm just wondering since you're in so many markets, obviously, the biggest portfolio, have you seen at all a migration maybe out of some of those poster child markets that people have focused on for a while and just smaller markets as developers kind of migrate I guess (inaudible) MSAs or not --
Joseph D. Russell, Jr. -- President
Yeah. And I think, I talked about that a few minutes ago relative to again some of those oversupplied markets that statistically we see a tapering down of deliveries in 2019. I wouldn't say, necessarily it's a migration. Some developers leave one market to go to the next market, but again, I think that's some encouraging news relative to hopefully some level of discipline that will play forward relative to slowing down some of these developments that, at the end of the day, may be oversupplying certain markets. So that's encouraging. And again, we'll see how through -- not only next year but the year after, how some of that discipline continues to play through.
Smedes Rose -- Citi -- Analyst
Great. Okay. Thanks a lot.
Joseph D. Russell, Jr. -- President
Thank you.
Operator
Our next question will come from the line of Todd Thomas KeyBanc Capital Markets.
Todd Thomas -- KeyBanc Capital Markets -- Analyst
Hi. Thanks. Just first question, I guess, following up on the development topic and speaking to your development and redevelopment pipeline specifically, both of which are thinning a bit here as you complete some projects and bring them online, are you seeing opportunities to backfill projects such this filling in the pipeline is really just timing related? Or is the opportunity set in front of you for development shrinking?
Joseph D. Russell, Jr. -- President
Yes. Todd, I wouldn't take that as holistically shrinking. We've continued to look for well-placed and priced land sides. And concurrent with that, we've talked about over the last few quarters also another opportunity we continue to have, which is the redevelopment or expansion of existing properties. So there's been a shift to even more investment into the redevelopment and expansion part of the portfolio. One of the things that came out of the hurricane, as I mentioned a few minutes ago, in Houston specifically is, we ended up accelerating some of the potential rebuilds that we saw in that market because of the damage that took place on eight or so properties. So those have or are close to being fully completed. So there's a little bit of that and the shift of size of the development pipeline going into the next couple of years.
But again, we continue to see really good opportunities to develop and create a great value with the expertise that we have not only in ground-up construction, but with our team focused on expanding and enhancing existing properties. Again, in a natural way, it is shifting, where over the last couple of years, we've put a lot of new product in Dallas and Houston, for instance, but going to the 2019 -- although Texas is still an area we feel confident about investing into, but it's more balanced. We've got properties going into Florida, Washington, Minnesota and other markets. So we're continuing to find new opportunities. And again, we're keeping a very close eye on other factors as well, which includes construction costs, and again, the things that we need to make sure that we're ticking and tying as we look at the value that we can create. But again, it continues to be a very vibrant part of our capital allocation decisions and I think we're going to see really strong value.
As you look at how again these developments stack up, particularly from 2016 to today, most of them are still in really early stages of not only lease up, but stabilization. And if you look at the vintage of acquisitions -- or not the acquisition, excuse me, but developments that we did between 2013 and '15, they are plus or minus in that high single low double-digit return range. And again, the population of assets that we continue to develop are still likely to generate similar levels of returns. So, it's a good business for us and again, we continue to see very good opportunities around that.
Smedes Rose -- Citi -- Analyst
Okay. That's helpful. And then, I just wanted to also just circle back to the new technology system you've implemented. And I'm assuming that that system is state-of-the-art in terms of utilizing data and understanding customer behavior and ultimately, helping maximize revenue. How do you think your technology is stacked up before the implementation of that system? I'm just wondering how much room is there for an improvement and where is the biggest opportunity across operations from your standpoint?
Joseph D. Russell, Jr. -- President
Well, there's a lot of factors that go into that, Todd. I wouldn't say, again, it was because Web Champ 1, which was its predecessor, was a failing or deficient system. We intentionally took a number of years with a sizable investment and a very different perspective, again based on the world that we live in today in terms of customer acquisition, where a decade ago you had a higher dominance tied to a call center or a drive-by, or frankly even Yellow Pages, where today, again our world centers around all things tied to the Internet. Okay? So we saw that evolving. We were able to design and continue to enhance the system and we'll continue to do so even in its current version.
And Company as a whole, we've got a firm commitment to continue to invest in technology initiatives. A fair amount of that, like I mentioned, is very proprietary and it's in the backbone, but it's effective. And we are very encouraged by the things that we can continue to drive with the knowledge base again that we have, not only from a market standpoint, but from a customer standpoint, and the tools that we can use very vibrantly as this system is in place and the things around it continue to evolve. So we're encouraged by it.
Smedes Rose -- Citi -- Analyst
Okay. Thank you.
Joseph D. Russell, Jr. -- President
You bet.
Operator
Our next question will come from the line of Ki Bin Kim, SunTrust.
Ki Bin Kim -- SunTrust -- Analyst
Thanks. Just following up on Todd's questions. So, the new platform, the improved platform you put in place, so where does that ultimately lead you to? Is the new system in some incremental way suggesting that you should improve or change allocation or invest in mobile versus, however, you use SEO, what are the different avenues that it's pulling you toward?
Joseph D. Russell, Jr. -- President
Yes. Ki, I wouldn't say the system itself does that. Those are all other, again I would say, interrelated initiatives that we pull together to again drive the tools that we uniquely can drive because we've got a brand that resonates very effectively through even an Internet world versus one that a decade ago was tied to Yellow Pages and drive-by and call center. Okay? So, we've got search engine optimization that's tied to that. We've got Internet strategies. We've got knowledge around our customers. So it's a very vibrant, but interrelated set of initiatives. And again, we think that we've got great opportunities and tools that will continue to improve our ability to not only find, but retain the most valuable types of customers.
Ki Bin Kim -- SunTrust -- Analyst
Okay. And in terms of capital allocation, you're sitting on about over $400 million of cash. You have obviously some uses for capital in the near-term and you have I think about 700 million plus of preferred equity that is redeemable next year. Just curious about where you think the best use of capital would be next year or going forward?
Tom Boyle -- Chief Financial Officer
Sure. So, Ki Bin, maybe -- it's Tom. I can talk about the cash balance we have and the uses there and we can talk about capital allocation as the second component of the question. So, we are sitting on, as you highlighted, about $430 million in cash. That's largely spoken for. For the most part the $340 million of cash is required to complete our existing pipelines. So that'll be spent over the next 12 months to 18 months. And so, that's the capital allocation that Joe highlighted we think will have good returns and value for the Company, and we made that decision. In addition, we have about $80 million of acquisition under contract today. So you add those together, you get a meaningful portion of our cash balance.
We're hopeful that 2019 will bring more opportunities on the acquisition front. Maybe cap rates do change at some point here and would allow a shift back to acquisitions from a capital allocation standpoint. We're not seeing that today, but that's certainly an opportunity, and if that were the case, we would need new financing for that. But as we look at our capital allocation today, we'll go back to what Joe said earlier, which is we've seen a lot more value in being able to build Class A Public Storage designed and location -- pick locations at $100 to $120 a square foot compared to the acquisition environment out there that's multiples of that.
Ki Bin Kim -- SunTrust -- Analyst
Okay. Thank you.
Joseph D. Russell, Jr. -- President
Thank you.
Operator
Our next question will come from the line of Eric Frankel Green Street Advisors.
Eric Frankel -- Green Street Advisors -- Analyst
I posed this question to the management team at PSB last week and maybe you could comment, it looks like the (inaudible) Prop 13 ballot initiative will be on the 2020 ballot. Wanted to get a take on what the impact would be to your portfolio in terms of either expense growth or NOI hit if that passes eventually? Obviously, the implementation would be -- it's obviously uncertain, but I'd like to understand if property tax basis for property market how that would impact your portfolio? Thanks
Joseph D. Russell, Jr. -- President
Sure. Yeah, Eric. I mean we're tracking the potential of this happening -- over the last literally two or three decades has come and gone many, many times. So, frankly, we haven't gotten to the point where we think that at this point there's a high likelihood that it could happen. But as we get closer, we'll continue to evaluate what impacts it would have. There's no question that we've got a sizable portfolio in California. We've owned it for a number of years. So there would be an impact, no question.
What we have no idea is what that impact could be from a size, timing and even complexity standpoint. I think that's all ahead of us relative to what could play forward. So, it's a change that we frankly have no idea if it's going to happen. So we're going to hold off on putting a lot of potential impacts out because we frankly just don't know what it could be yet. We'll track it. We'll see if it becomes something more realistic. We'll at that point give a little bit more perspective relative to potential impacts, but at this point, it's too soon to tell.
Eric Frankel -- Green Street Advisors -- Analyst
Okay. This debate is to be continued. That's all I have. Thank you.
Joseph D. Russell, Jr. -- President
Okay. Thanks, Eric.
Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Tayo Okusanya, Jefferies.
Omotayo Okusanya -- Jefferies -- Analyst
Hi. Good morning over there in Cali. I just -- I may have missed this earlier on, but could you just talk a little bit about the acquisition outlook, whether you're starting to see cap rates moving as supply continues to be an issue? And what also you've seen out there just in regards to how buyers versus sellers are interacting?
Joseph D. Russell, Jr. -- President
Yeah. Tayo, I think, we've talked to that at some length, but at the end of the day, there's really not yet been a material shift in both seller expectations and what buyer expectations are relative to create, what I would say, a more vibrant transaction environment. We've been very disciplined. 2018 is, at the end of the day, going to be a light acquisition year for us and I think that's appropriate. So we're not seeing a lot of sense that's tied to valuations that are far in excess of replacement costs. And as you may have heard, we're instead putting far more of our energies into our development pipeline, where we can create much better value.
Omotayo Okusanya -- Jefferies -- Analyst
Right. Okay. And then, also with the Shurgard now being a public company does not -- does that not become an attractive source of capital for you guys?
Tom Boyle -- Chief Financial Officer
Shurgard, obviously went public and we're very happy for the management team there. They hosted their first conference call yesterday. Over time, we've had that investment since 2006. As we said, we have no plan to monetize that position today. We're believers in that business and wish the team there certainly all the best wishes as a new public company.
Omotayo Okusanya -- Jefferies -- Analyst
Got you. Great. Thank you.
Joseph D. Russell, Jr. -- President
Thank you.
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from the line of Mike Mueller, JPMorgan.
Mike Mueller -- JPMorgan -- Analyst
Joe, I'm just wondering can you just give us an update on the roll out of the 3rd Party business?
Joseph D. Russell, Jr. -- President
Sure. So, as we've talked in the last couple of quarters, Mike, we've been building the team that's focused and dedicated to build that business for us. So Pete Panos has got now a fully rounded out team. So they're out hitting the markets hard over the last two or three months, have now started participating in SSA shows, whether on a national basis or -- they're really recently at the Texas SSA. So that transition to more of an outbound process has begun. We're encouraged by the level of receptivity we're getting to our platform. Obviously, the advantages of coming into our system because of our brand and operational capabilities, et cetera.
So, so far the team's got 12 new properties signed up. We did last quarter mention a larger component of integration or new properties coming into the 3rd Party management platform. We intentionally, however, made a decision to separate one portfolio that we decided was not a good fit for the program. We hadn't brought those properties into it yet. But we are very encouraged by the backlog that we've got and feel that the offering itself continues to resonate really well. It's weighted at the moment more heavily, as you can imagine, on pending and/or development properties that are coming into market. So, because of that, it takes some amount of time to actually pull those properties into our system once they open, but we're seeing good quality. We're seeing good ability on our part to integrate them into current operations. So we feel very encouraged by the platform.
Mike Mueller -- JPMorgan -- Analyst
Got it. And just separately on the expansion pipeline, I mean, what's the visibility that you have for looking out over the next few years to maintain $300 million $350 million that you've been running at thus far?
Joseph D. Russell, Jr. -- President
It's a good question Mike. And obviously, we've got 2,400 properties. Many of them are in prime locations as candidates for this kind of development activity. So it's going to depend on a number of factors. The easiest expansion opportunities we always have is where we've either got land and/or just parking areas that we can put, say, a 3-plus story facility and to basically tie to or complement what's already on the ground. So we have many of those opportunities that we've yet to touch. So, that's great and we're evaluating those.
And then, what can be a little bit more complicated is when you need to make the decision to actually take down parts or full existing properties. So again, on a case-by-case basis, we continue to look at those. Another factor that comes into play is zoning may or may not enable us to get the kind of density that we would like in certain locations. So there's a number of processes that we put together relative to the right candidates for this, but I'm very pleased by what our real estate development team's been able to do so far and I think it's going to continue to be a vibrant part of our overall development program.
Mike Mueller -- JPMorgan -- Analyst
Got it. Okay. That was it. Thank you.
Joseph D. Russell, Jr. -- President
You bet. Thanks, Mike.
Operator
Our next question will come from the line of Juan Sanabria, Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Juan Sanabria -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst
Hi. Just a follow-up on supply. Do, you have sense on a three-year rolling basis given that's how you think about the lease-ups, what percentages of your portfolio is exposed toady in 2018 and how that changes into 2019?
Joseph D. Russell, Jr. -- President
Yes. Juan, we really don't look at it on a three-year rolling basis. I really would tie it more to what we're seeing in just raw deliveries year by year. So, as I mentioned, there is some shifting that is starting to take place in certain markets, which I named, that are likely to start shifting down in deliveries and then others that are likely to taper up. So, again, it's not always to a specific property an immediate or direct impact, but we track it by our top 30 markets. And as I mentioned, overall, nationally, 2019 is likely to be pretty similar to 2018.
Juan Sanabria -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst
Okay. And then just one more question, if you wouldn't mind. What are the (inaudible) rates you guys got for the third quarter and the trend today so far in the fourth?
Tom Boyle -- Chief Financial Officer
So, we disclosed in the 10-Q what the per square foot rates were for the quarter. For move-in rates, we're 14.76 per square foot on an annualized basis. As we get out of the summer and into the fall, seasonally, we have rates that will lower. As you'd expect, we're a seasonal business, where there's more demand in the spring and summer months given the use case for our product for many customers who may be moving in the summer months between school years and things like that, college students, et cetera. So rates, as we go through the fall and into the winter, do decline. And so we're seeing that as you would expect. I think from a trend standpoint, if you're asking year-over-year trend, I would say, pretty consistent into the October month compared to the third quarter.
Juan Sanabria -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst
Thank you.
Operator
Our next question will come from the line of Smedes Rose with Citi.
Smedes Rose -- Citi -- Analyst
Hi. Thank you. I just wanted to ask you a quick follow-up question. Your on-site payroll and supervisory payroll year-to-date has been essentially flat, even slightly down. Could you maybe just talk about your expectations there and how you've been able to maintain so much, I guess, discipline there? The other industries that I follow that have a lot of, like I guess, lower skilled, maybe lower hourly cost labor, that worker is getting a real bid here. And I am just wondering how you are managing that in that kind of broader context?
Joseph D. Russell, Jr. -- President
Yeah. Smedes, there's no questions that there are pressure points. We are in a very challenging employment arena. We do and have found opportunities to look for efficiencies, productivity, ways of optimizing again our employee base. I give a lot of credit to our operational teams throughout the markets, where from again both supervisory and then on an hourly basis, we continue to look for ways of optimizing use and size, and again, the burden that takes place relative to the tough environment that we're in.
That said, there's no question we can't avoid and have not avoided what plays through relative to the competitive nature that's out there. So a lot of markets continue to raise wage rates that we need to deal with and we have I think a very vibrant and effective way that our HR team as well assist us with that. So we continue to look at a lot of ways of, again, optimizing and creating levels of productivity that to a degree can help balance that.
Going forward it's going to continue to be a challenge and we've got, again, a great team of leaders throughout our markets that are helping us find very sensible ways of dealing with this environment, and we're going to continue to work through that as we play forward into 2019, which again, is likely to be with everything we're seeing today -- in today's economy very tough unemployment environment.
Smedes Rose -- Citi -- Analyst
Okay. Thank you.
Operator
Our next question comes from the line of Eric Frankel, Green Street Advisors.
Eric Frankel -- Green Street Advisors -- Analyst
Thank you. One of our follow-up questions was already asked, but maybe if you could talk about some market-specific data. It looks like your two weakest markets were Chicago and Dallas. And so, Dallas is understandable, that seems to be experiencing a lot of supply. But we're under the impression that Chicago is recovering and there hasn't been as much supply in the market or as much inventory coming online recently. So maybe you can just comment on some of the trends there. Thank you.
Joseph D. Russell, Jr. -- President
Yeah. Sure, Eric. Yeah. Your point on Dallas is correct. Again, the burden of supply deliveries over the last couple of years has been particularly pronounced there. Again, that was the market that I highlighted that we hope to continue to see fewer deliveries. The statistics point to that relative to 2019, but it's still fair amount of product that needs to be absorbed.
Chicago is showing some signs of improvement. Again, not as many deliveries going forward and fingers crossed, hopefully, some degree of economic recovery there as well. But we're only one quarter or two into that change, but we're hoping that there is some sustainability there and we're going to see, hopefully, fewer deliveries as well. It's stack ranks pretty low relative to deliveries going into next year. So, again, we hope the pressure eases on that front too.
Eric Frankel -- Green Street Advisors -- Analyst
Is it fair to say that the big NOI hit was principally due to property tax increases there?
Joseph D. Russell, Jr. -- President
Yes. That's right.
Eric Frankel -- Green Street Advisors -- Analyst
Okay. Thank you.
Joseph D. Russell, Jr. -- President
Thanks, Eric.
Operator
Our next question will come from the line of Steve Sakwa, Evercore ISI.
Steve Sakwa -- Evercore ISI -- Analyst
Thanks. I guess still good morning out there. I just was hoping you could maybe talk a little bit more about the occupancy trends throughout the quarter. I know the average was down 64 basis points to the third quarter. I guess, Tom, maybe could you just walk us through how July, August, September played out and maybe give us some kind of look into October and where we are just about the start on November?
Tom Boyle -- Chief Financial Officer
Sure, Steve. So, in terms of occupancy throughout the quarter, as you highlighted, the average is down 60 basis points. As we've talked about on prior calls, we've seen over the last year more move-outs toward the end of the month that leads to a tougher comparison at the period-end number compared to the middle-of-the-month comparison on an average basis. So that's part of what's driving that differential between average and period-end.
The other thing is the hurricane, as I highlighted before. So if you exclude the hurricane markets, the period-end numbers from June to September improved sequentially compared to prior year, and would have finished down 80 basis points for the 9/30 print. As we look through July, August, September, pretty consistent occupancy throughout those months. As we got into September in particular, in Houston and then in Florida, we saw a much tougher occupancy comp. So, to give you a sense, at 9/30 occupancy in Houston was down crica 600 basis points. And as we've moved through October, that has eased, lower a little bit, but still a meaningfully difficult occupancy comp in Houston.
Across the rest of the portfolio, as I highlighted earlier, occupancy trends have been improving through the year. So, as we look at the non-hurricane impacted markets today, we're down about 40 basis points in occupancy year-over-year, again, comparing to that average 60 basis points in the third quarter and the period-end down 80.
Steve Sakwa -- Evercore ISI -- Analyst
Okay. And just to be clear, that down 40 basis points is kind of blended with the Houstons and the Floridas?
Tom Boyle -- Chief Financial Officer
No. The down 40 basis points is excluding Houstons and the Floridas. If you include the Houstons and the Floridas, you are down 70 basis points, 80 basis points in October.
Steve Sakwa -- Evercore ISI -- Analyst
Got it. Okay. Thanks very much.
Tom Boyle -- Chief Financial Officer
You are welcome.
Operator
Thank you. I'll now turn the call back over to Ryan Burke for closing comments.
Ryan Burke -- Vice President of Investor Relations
Thank you, Holly. And thanks to all of you for joining us today. We look forward to seeing many of you next week.
Operator
Thank you for participating in today's Public Storage conference call. You may now disconnect.
Duration: 55 minutes
Call participants:
Ryan Burke -- Vice President of Investor Relations
Joseph D. Russell, Jr. -- President
Juan Sanabria -- Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- Analyst
Tom Boyle -- Chief Financial Officer
Jeremy Metz -- BMO Capital Markets -- Analyst
Ronald Kamdem -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst
Smedes Rose -- Citi -- Analyst
Todd Thomas -- KeyBanc Capital Markets -- Analyst
Ki Bin Kim -- SunTrust -- Analyst
Eric Frankel -- Green Street Advisors -- Analyst
Omotayo Okusanya -- Jefferies -- Analyst
Mike Mueller -- JPMorgan -- Analyst
Steve Sakwa -- Evercore ISI -- Analyst
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