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DATE

Thursday, April 30, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. ET

CALL PARTICIPANTS

  • Treasurer and Director of Capital Markets — Andrew Schaeffer
  • President and Chief Executive Officer — Adrian Bradley Hill
  • Chief Operating Officer — Timothy P. Argo
  • Chief Financial Officer — A. Clay Holder
  • Chief Legal Officer — Robert DelPriore

TAKEAWAYS

  • Same Store NOI Growth -- Sequential improvement above internal expectations, with blended lease-over-lease pricing up 140 basis points from the fourth quarter.
  • Core FFO -- Reported at $2 per diluted share, $0.02 ahead of first quarter guidance.
  • Average Physical Occupancy -- Maintained at 95.5% for the quarter and for April.
  • Net Delinquency -- Remained low at 0.3% of billed rents, consistent with recent quarters.
  • Blended Lease Rate Guidance -- Affirmed full-year growth range of 1%-1.5%, with Q1 at negative 0.3% and projections of 1.3%-1.8% blended for the last three quarters.
  • Renewal Lease Growth -- Expected to remain above 5% for the remainder of the year.
  • Market Outperformance -- Same store NOI leaders Atlanta, Dallas, and Orlando posted higher blended lease pricing than the portfolio average; Dallas led with a 240 basis point improvement in blended pricing and steady occupancy year over year.
  • Renovations -- 1,386 interior unit upgrades completed, up from just over 1,100 in 2025, commanding an average $104 rent premium and a 17% cash-on-cash return.
  • Development Pipeline -- $623 million in pipeline at quarter end; four project starts expected in 2026 with development spend forecast at $350 million, lowered from $400 million initial guidance but above 2025's $315 million spend.
  • Balance Sheet Metrics -- $840 million in liquidity, net debt/EBITDA at 4.5x, average debt maturity 6.1 years, and effective rate at 3.9%.
  • Bond Issuance -- Issued $200 million of seven-year public bonds in February at an effective rate of just over 4.6%.
  • Share Repurchases -- 558,000 shares repurchased during the quarter at a weighted average price of $130.46, totaling $73 million.
  • Lease-up Portfolio -- Five properties in lease-up at 68.3% combined occupancy, with elevated concessions up to eight weeks on some floorplans; two development assets actively leasing.
  • Wi-Fi Retrofit Initiative -- Deployed at 27 properties with over 35 additional properties to be added in 2026; expected to generate approximately $3 million of revenue in 2026, increasing in 2027 and beyond.
  • Second Quarter Core FFO Guidance -- Range set at $2.00-$2.12 per diluted share, midpoint at $2.06.

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RISKS

  • Concessions in underperforming markets like Charlotte and Austin remain elevated, with Charlotte “probably more of a 2027 recovery story,” as operational pressure persists from recent heavy supply.
  • Management acknowledged lingering supply effects, noting “Over a three-year period, we had five years’ worth of supply delivered,” and indicated new lease rate recovery is taking longer than anticipated.
  • Q2 and full-year interest expense is expected to rise, driven by “the delivery of additional development units and incremental borrowings associated with share repurchases and the litigation settlement.”

SUMMARY

Mid-America Apartment Communities (MAA 0.41%) delivered same store NOI and core FFO that outperformed initial guidance, largely due to blended pricing gains and disciplined expense management. The company reduced its 2026 development start expectations to four projects, shifting annual spending guidance to $350 million. Portfolio liquidity reached $840 million, aided by a $200 million bond issuance in February, while net debt/EBITDA was stable at 4.5x. Executives reaffirmed full-year blended lease rate guidance of 1%-1.5%, highlighting steady renewal growth above 5% amid moderating supply pressure. Five properties in lease-up stood at 68.3% occupancy with concessions trending down in several challenged markets but remaining a drag in others.

  • Wi-Fi retrofit projects are poised to provide incremental revenue, with $3 million expected in 2026 as adoption ramps up into 2027.
  • Unit renovations accelerated, with upgraded apartments yielding a 17% cash-on-cash return and leasing faster than non-renovated units after adjusting for turn time.
  • Share repurchases continued at a measured pace, utilizing capital market dislocation to retire $73 million of stock at a weighted average price of $130.46.
  • Management indicated a disciplined approach to land acquisition, only purchasing parcels with a clear path to near-term development.
  • Despite heavy supply delivered in prior years, absorption outpaced new deliveries in footprint, supporting management’s cautiously improving outlook on new lease pricing as seasonal demand builds.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

  • Blended Lease-Over-Lease Pricing: Weighted average rate of change in new and renewal rent pricing for a portfolio, comparing current lease rents to expiring ones.
  • Cash-on-Cash Return: Annual pre-tax cash inflow from an investment, divided by the total cash invested.
  • Concessions: Lease incentives such as rent discounts or free rent weeks offered to stimulate demand or lease-up properties.
  • Lease-up Portfolio: Properties not yet stabilized, actively leasing to reach target occupancy after construction completion.
  • Net Delinquency: Portion of billed rent not collected, expressed as a percentage of total billed rent for the period.
  • NOI (Net Operating Income): Income from property operations before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.
  • 60-Day Exposure: Percentage of apartment units currently vacant or with leases expiring in the upcoming 60 days.
  • TSR (Total Shareholder Return): Total return to shareholders from stock price appreciation and dividends.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Andrew Schaeffer: Thank you, Regina, and good morning, everyone. This is Andrew Schaeffer, Treasurer and Director of Capital Markets for Mid-America Apartment Communities, Inc. Members of the management team participating on the call this morning are Adrian Bradley Hill, Timothy P. Argo, A. Clay Holder, and Robert DelPriore. Before we begin with prepared comments this morning, I want to point out that as part of this discussion, company management will be making forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from our projections. We would encourage you to refer to the forward-looking statements section in yesterday's earnings release and our 34x filings with the SEC, which describe risk factors that may impact future results.

During this call, we will also discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. A presentation of the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures as well as reconciliations of the differences between non-GAAP and comparable GAAP measures can be found in our earnings release and supplemental financial data. Our earnings release and supplement are currently available on the For Investors page of our website at maac.com. A copy of our prepared comments and an audio recording of this call will also be available on our website later today. After some brief prepared comments, the management team will be available to answer questions.

When we get to Q&A, please be respectful of everyone's time, and to attempt to complete our call within one hour due to other earnings calls today, we will limit questions to one per analyst. We ask that you rejoin the queue if you have any follow-up questions or additional items to discuss. I will now turn the call over to Brad.

Adrian Bradley Hill: Thanks, Andrew, and good morning, everyone. As highlighted in our release, we delivered first quarter results that exceeded our expectations, driven by the resilient demand in our footprint, strong resident retention, as well as our focus on expense management, and some timing-related items. New lease pricing continued to reflect supply pressure in several markets, but despite this pressure, new lease pricing improved sequentially, and supported by our continued strong renewal performance, blended lease-over-lease pricing improved 140 basis points from the fourth quarter. With the bulk of the leasing season ahead, we like our positioning and momentum going into summer with stable occupancy and better 60-day exposure than a year ago.

Our high-growth markets are producing solid demand to absorb the new supply in a steady manner that we believe will enable continued stable occupancy, favorable renewal pricing, strong collections, and overall earnings performance in line with the outlook we provided in our prior guidance. Our leasing traffic remains strong, and positive migration trends, strong wage growth, and stable employment conditions across our diversified portfolio and markets combine to drive solid demand, as evidenced by first quarter absorption exceeding new supply deliveries in our footprint. Operationally, our on-site teams, actively supported by our management team, continue to execute at a high level, controlling expenses while delivering an excellent resident experience as reflected in our sector-leading Google scores.

As a result of our strong customer service, and the ongoing single-family affordability challenges, renewals remain consistent, helping to deliver year-over-year blended lease improvement for five consecutive quarters. We continue to allocate capital in a balanced and disciplined manner, taking advantage of the current pricing dislocation of our existing portfolio in the public market to buy back shares, as well as executing on initiatives to deliver long-term earnings growth while protecting our strong balance sheet. With acquisition cap rates around 4.5% for high-quality properties in our footprint, our external growth efforts are predominantly focused on new development through our existing pipeline of owned and controlled land sites representing over 4.3 thousand units of future growth.

We started construction on our first project for the year in April, a 286-unit community in the Kansas City market. Based on our current approval and construction timelines, we now expect to start construction on four projects this year, reducing our expected development spend for the year to $350 million. While this is down from the $400 million in our original forecast, it is up from the $315 million we invested and the two projects we started in 2025. The projects we expect to start this year will deliver in 2028 and 2029 during what we believe will be a more favorable supply-demand environment.

As we look forward, we remain encouraged by underlying demand across our markets, declining new deliveries, and the strength of our resident base with continued strong collections and affordable rents at a 20% rent-to-income ratio. Our high-growth markets continue to offer attractive long-term appeal for employers, households, and investors. With positive absorption, stable demand, and market-level occupancies improving, we are optimistic we will continue to build momentum through the spring and summer, supporting improved new lease pricing as the year progresses.

In addition to capturing increased organic growth from our existing asset base through the year, we expect a growing NOI contribution from a number of areas, including new initiatives to drive efficiencies and higher operating margin from our existing portfolio, our growing redevelopment opportunities, as well as a growing development pipeline that continues to lease up. Today, we believe our more diversified and higher-quality portfolio, our stronger operating platform, and our stronger balance sheet position us to capture improving performance and to deliver meaningful shareholder value over the approaching recovery cycle. We are excited about the outlook over the next few years. To all our associates across our properties and corporate offices, thank you for your continued dedication and focus.

And with that, I will turn the call over to Tim.

Timothy P. Argo: Thank you, Brad, and good morning, everyone. For the first quarter, same store NOI beat our expectations, with in-line same store revenue combining with lower same store expenses to drive the favorability. From a pricing standpoint, new lease-over-lease growth improved 110 basis points sequentially from the fourth quarter but continues to be under pressure due to elevated but moderating new supply combined with more macro-level economic uncertainty. On the renewal side, similar to the last several quarters, retention rates and lease rates remain strong. Renewal lease-over-lease growth improved 70 basis points sequentially from the fourth quarter, driving blended lease-over-lease growth up 140 basis points from the fourth quarter. Average physical occupancy remained strong at 95.5% for the quarter.

Additionally, we had another quarter of strong collections, with net delinquency representing just 0.3% of billed rents, in line with the last several quarters. From a market standpoint, many of the markets where we saw strong performance in the fourth quarter and most of last year continued to show strength in the first quarter. We have noted on several occasions the performance of our mid-tier markets, particularly in Virginia and South Carolina. Richmond, Greenville, the D.C. area markets, and Charleston all demonstrated strong pricing power and strong occupancy in the quarter. Encouragingly, our three largest markets in terms of same store NOI contribution—Atlanta, Dallas, and Orlando—all outperformed the portfolio in the first quarter in blended lease-over-lease pricing.

Austin, though improving, is still a challenge, particularly on the new lease pricing side. Charlotte and Savannah are two other markets facing challenges in the wake of heavy supply pressure. In our lease-up portfolio, MAA Liberty Row in Charlotte and Breakwater in Tampa completed construction in the fourth quarter and moved into our lease-up portfolio. We now have five properties in lease-up with a combined occupancy of 68.3% as of the end of the first quarter, and an additional two development properties that are actively leasing units. Elevated concessions remain the case for some of these lease-up properties, with up to eight weeks on certain floor plans.

However, these projects are still expected to achieve our underwritten yields as markets continue to improve and therefore retain their long-term value creation opportunity. We are off to a quick start in the first quarter on our various targeted redevelopment and repositioning initiatives. During 2026, we completed 1.386 thousand interior unit upgrades, up from just over 1.1 thousand units we renovated in 2025. We achieved rent increases of $104 above non-upgraded units on an average unit-level spend of $7.349 thousand, representing a cash-on-cash return of approximately 17%. These units continue to lease faster than non-renovated units when adjusted for the additional turn time, averaging about nine days quicker.

For our common area and amenity repositioning program, we are over 90% repriced at six recent projects with an average NOI yield above 10% and rent growth far exceeding peer MAA properties. Five additional projects are nearing construction completion and will begin repricing between May and August. Then six additional properties are in the planning phase with expectations to be complete in time for repricing in 2027. Our Wi-Fi retrofit initiatives that began in 2024 and expanded in 2025 continue to grow. We have 27 live properties where the service is rolling out to residents as leases are signed, and we are further expanding this initiative in 2026 to an additional 35-plus properties.

As we head into the busier part of the leasing season, we are well positioned. Average physical occupancy for April is 95.5%, in line with April 2025, and 60-day exposure is currently 8.3%, 20 basis points better than where we ended April 2025. With increased absorption in our markets in the first quarter, where the number of incrementally occupied units exceeded new deliveries, supply pressure continues to moderate. Despite the previously mentioned economic uncertainty, lead volume remained strong and ahead of last year. Strong renewal performance continues in the second quarter, with retention rates and lease-over-lease growth rates on renewals accepted remaining consistent with what we have seen in the last few quarters.

With an assumed backdrop of steady demand, we expect gradual seasonal improvement in new lease rates through the second and early third quarters along with consistent renewal growth and retention. As we get later in the year, improving fundamentals will become even more impactful, setting up a stronger 2027. That is all I have in the way of prepared comments. Now I will turn the call over to Clay.

A. Clay Holder: Thank you, Tim. Good morning, everyone. We reported core FFO for the quarter of $2 [inaudible] per diluted share, which was $0.02 ahead of our first quarter guidance. For the quarter, same store expenses were favorable to our guidance by $0.015 along with non-same store NOI favorable by $0.01, offset by unfavorable interest expense of $0.005. Same store repair and maintenance expenses, personnel cost, and marketing costs were all below our expectations and were reflected by our disciplined expense control along with expense timing. During the quarter, we funded approximately $100 million in development costs.

At quarter end, our development pipeline was at $623 million, leaving an expected $234 million to be funded on the current pipeline over the next three years. As previously discussed, we did adjust the number of development starts from our initial guidance and accordingly lowered our development spend for the year by $50 million. While the size of our pipeline at a point in time can vary based on starts and deliveries during the quarter, we expect the pipeline to grow throughout the year as we begin construction on new projects. Our balance sheet remains in great shape to support this and other growth initiatives.

At the end of the quarter, we had nearly $840 million in combined cash and borrowing capacity under our revolving credit facility, and our net debt to EBITDA ratio was 4.5 times. At quarter end, outstanding debt had an average maturity of 6.1 years at an effective rate of 3.9%. During February, we issued $200 million of seven-year public bonds at an effective rate of just over 4.6%, using proceeds to repay borrowings under our commercial paper program. Also during the quarter, we repurchased 558 thousand shares of common stock at a weighted average share price of $130.46, for a total of $73 million.

As for our full-year outlook, with the bulk of the leasing season ahead of us, we are reaffirming the midpoint of our same store and core FFO guidance for the year while tightening the core FFO range. For the second quarter, we expect core FFO to be in the range of $2.00 to $2.12 per diluted share, or $2.06 per share at the midpoint. Our second quarter guidance reflects the typical seasonal increase in leasing as well as higher maintenance-related operating cost. The increase in interest expense from first to second quarter is largely attributable to the delivery of additional development units and incremental borrowings associated with share repurchases and the litigation settlement.

These impacts to interest expense are expected to be partially offset by proceeds from property dispositions. That is all that we have in the way of prepared comments.

Andrew Schaeffer: Regina, we will now turn the call back to you for questions.

Operator: We will now open the call up for questions. If you would like to ask a question, please press star then 1 on your touch tone phone. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star then 1 again. Our first question will come from the line of Eric Wolfe with Citi. Please go ahead.

Eric Wolfe: Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Based on your guidance, you are expecting blended rates to ramp through the year. I think you just said a moment ago that you are expecting a typical seasonal impact in the second quarter. Could you talk specifically about what you expect to see over the next couple of months? I think last quarter, you actually gave guidance for first quarter blend, so I was hoping you could do the same for the second quarter blend and talk about whether you are finally starting to see some of the supply impact easing in some of your markets.

Timothy P. Argo: Yes, Eric. This is Tim. I will answer that, and I will walk you through how we are thinking about our blended guidance for the year. Guidance remains 1% to 1.5% blended for the full year. As we reported, we did negative 0.3% blended in Q1, but we are starting to see some steady incremental improvement on the new lease side and then continue to see the steady renewals.

As we think about the rest of the year, to your point, we would expect new lease pricing to continue to accelerate through about July and then start to moderate seasonally, but we expect that seasonal moderation to be less so in the back part of the year than it typically is, as we continue to see the supply impact moderate. We continue to think that renewals will be in that 5% plus range and stay pretty consistent. If you think through all that, to get to our 1% to 1.5%, you are kind of in a 1.3% to 1.8% blended for the last three quarters of the year.

You can think about how that trajectory will work out from where we are here, using that seasonal curve that I have talked about.

Operator: Our next question will come from the line of Jana Galan with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Jana Galan: Thank you. Good morning. Sorry, Tim, question for you again. Can you speak to performance on both the concessions and absorption in Atlanta and in Dallas?

Timothy P. Argo: Yes. In Atlanta and Dallas, we continue to see some pretty solid performance, particularly in Dallas. If I look at Dallas for a moment and you look at where we are from a price standpoint right now and an occupancy standpoint compared to this time last year, we saw about a 240 basis point improvement in blended pricing from Q1 2025 to Q1 2026, and steady occupancy along with that. Similarly, in Atlanta, we saw about a 50 basis point increase in blended pricing last year to this year, and about a 20 basis point increase in occupancy. Atlanta probably started to recover for us a little bit earlier, and we have seen that continue to stabilize and move forward.

Dallas was a little bit later, but we are seeing some good strength there. I expect Dallas to be one of our stronger performing markets this year. We are seeing it pretty broad-based. There is still some pressure in the Allen/McKinney areas, but Uptown is performing well, as are some of the other suburban markets. In Atlanta, we are still seeing some of the in-town and Downtown/Midtown/Buckhead submarkets outperform some of the suburbs. Duluth and Smyrna are still a little bit weaker and still seeing higher concessions. For Dallas, we have seen concessions come down a little bit; they are not as broad-based in Dallas as some of the other markets.

We have seen some relief there, particularly in the urban areas. In Atlanta, the concessions were coming down a little bit last quarter and they remain pretty consistent with where they were last quarter. You still have about a month or so on average, but the submarkets that I talked about have come down quite a bit.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Austin Todd Wurschmidt with KeyBanc. Please go ahead.

Austin Todd Wurschmidt: Thanks. Good morning. Kind of sticking with Tim here. On new lease rate growth, I know you had some weather disruption in the first quarter. Were you surprised at the pace of improvement in new lease rate growth versus the fourth quarter? And are you seeing that pace improve or accelerate into the second quarter, or is it more similar to what you saw from the fourth quarter of last year into the first quarter of this year? Thanks.

Timothy P. Argo: Yes. If you remember last year, we were seeing some strong acceleration in new lease rates through about April, and then it really kind of plateaued with [inaudible], and we saw it sort of peak there and not really get momentum past May. I think what we are seeing this year is more of a steady acceleration. To your point, February kind of stalled out for a little bit and brought Q1 new lease pricing a little bit down from where we expected, but then we saw it quickly return in March. We are seeing some momentum play out in April as well.

Where we are with exposure and occupancy, I would expect May to outperform where we were in May last year, where we again were kind of stalled out. I would say we are seeing a more seasonal or more normal acceleration in new lease rates this year. Last year was a little quicker, but then it slowed to a complete halt. We would expect that not to continue. In all the stats we look at—where we are with exposure, lead volume, occupancy, and what is out there with preleasing—we would expect that momentum to continue beyond May, unlike last year.

Adrian Bradley Hill: Yes, and I would add a couple of points to what Tim is saying, speaking more broadly. One of the things that gives us encouragement about trajectory, as Tim mentioned a moment ago, as we go throughout the balance of the year, is first, if you look at the broad demand fundamentals in our region of the country, they continue to screen quite well across the board. Job growth continues to be resilient. The other demand factor trends, including population growth, all continue to be very resilient within our region of the country. If you look at the momentum that Tim was just talking about, market-level occupancy in the first quarter continued to firm up.

Absorption numbers exceeded deliveries in the first quarter. With the renewal positioning that we have right now, as Tim mentioned, our occupancy is stable and our exposure is in a better position than it was this time last year. That puts us in a really good position to continue the momentum we have seen in April as we get into May and June. We feel like the momentum is building from the dashboards that we have to date. That momentum continues to build in the second quarter, which is what we need to see in order to continue to see new lease progression throughout the year, which aligns with what our expectations are for the year.

Operator: Our next question will come from the line of Haendel St. Juste with Mizuho. Please go ahead.

Haendel St. Juste: Hey there. Maybe a question on capital deployment. I understand the decision to lower the acquisition guide given market pricing and your cost of capital, but could you explain a bit more on the decision to pull back on some of the new development starts? And would that lower use of capital—lower capital deployment overall—suggest you might be more open to doing more stock buybacks in the near term given the compelling yield on that side? Thanks.

Adrian Bradley Hill: Yes, hey, Haendel. This is Brad. As I mentioned in my opening comments, the pullback in development spend—development is a little bit fluid with timing of when deals can start, approvals take a little bit longer than you think, things of that nature. The nature of the reduction from, as we mentioned in the prior call, we could start between five and seven deals this year. Based on where we are in the approval cycle of those, it looks like it is going to be closer to four. You never know—some of those could get approvals earlier, and if the economics make sense, we could start those toward the back part of the year.

That is where we expect to be in terms of development for the year. We continue to believe that is one of the best uses of our capital to deliver long-term value for shareholders, so we will continue to focus on that. As A. Clay Holder mentioned in his comments, we expect the size of our pipeline to continue to grow. Our spend for the year is down from what we originally expected but still up from where it was last year, and we expect that on an ongoing basis to be in the $300 million to $400 million range. No real change in terms of that.

In terms of share repurchases, when we think about how best to allocate capital, we are really focused on generating high-quality compounding earnings growth that supports a steady and growing dividend. We think that is the best way to drive TSR performance over the full cycle. When we do that, there are three things that we are considering when we decide where we put our capital. First, we want to take a very balanced approach. That balanced approach helps us take advantage of near-term opportunities, which right now happen to be the share buybacks, and you have seen us be active in that space.

We also want to be able to take advantage of opportunities that we think contribute to that long-term TSR performance, and that is where development comes in. We still think that is the best opportunity for us to drive long-term TSR performance. We are getting accretive returns, and today those are in the mid-6% range. Our development, importantly, has been able to deliver higher NOI growth—about 50 to 100 basis points on a long-term basis—versus our existing portfolio. Second, we want to protect our balance sheet capacity, and you are not going to see us go out and leverage up our balance sheet because we want to protect what we are able to do with our balance sheet.

Third, we like our portfolio. We like where we are located. We like the markets we are in. We do not have a need to go and materially reallocate capital amongst our markets, which can drive higher dispositions and capital redeployment. That is really how we are looking at our various opportunities for capital allocation and where share repurchases fall within that.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Alexander David Goldfarb with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.

Alexander David Goldfarb: Hey, good morning down there. Just a question on the guidance. You talked pretty optimistically about the balance of the year, acceleration—you are talking about this year’s leasing trends not looking to stall like last year did—but yet you adjusted guidance; you basically tightened the range. A lot of your peers sort of left it open-ended to revisit guidance in the second quarter. Based on your commentary, it would sound like you think there is potential for upside, but yet you trimmed the top end and tightened the range. Can you talk a little bit more about your decision to revisit guidance now versus waiting to the second quarter?

A. Clay Holder: Yes, Alex, this is Clay. The real reason that we brought down the guide—or at least the range—keeping our midpoint the same as we came out with our initial guidance, is that we were a little wider in our range as we started the year than what we would typically do. We did that because of the macro uncertainty that Tim mentioned earlier—some of the demand concerns that were out there at that time. As we sit here today, that has lessened. We have one quarter behind us, and so we tightened that range down to a range that we would typically go out with for the year. That is really all that we were doing by tightening the range.

We still feel very confident in our overall guidance as we move throughout the year.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Adam Kramer with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Adam Kramer: Hey, guys. Good morning. I wanted to ask about the renewal growth with regards to concessions. Is there any way to disaggregate or break down what percentage of the renewal growth that you get each quarter comes from concession burn-off versus gross rent increases? And then, across the portfolio, what are you offering today in terms of concessions, and how does that compare to the same period a year ago?

Timothy P. Argo: Yes. This is Tim. For the first part of your question, there is not a lot there. With our portfolio, we do not use a ton of concessions. We are mostly in net effective pricing. If you look at our financials, concessions represent about 0.6% of our net potential rent. For us, the burn-off of concessions in our same store renewal base is very minimal—maybe 10 basis points or something like that. It is more impactful on our lease-up properties. We are getting 8% to 10% renewals on lease-ups where there is some burn-off of concessions that is driving part of that, so you can distinguish between those two.

As far as the concession market across our portfolio and across our markets, I would say for Q1 it was pretty consistent with what we saw in Q4. Sixty to sixty-five percent of our competitors were offering some level of concession, somewhere between four and five weeks as a standard. That is broadly across the portfolio. We have seen it tick down just ever so slightly as we got into April, where not only the percent of competitors offering concessions came down a little bit, but there was also a small decrease in the overall average concession. I think that is perhaps a sign of some of the momentum to come.

Absorption was positive this quarter, so you release some lease-up units out there. We are starting to see it tick down just a little bit.

Operator: Our next question will come from the line of Michael Goldsmith with UBS. Please go ahead.

Michael Goldsmith: Morning. This is Amy. I am with Michael. We were wondering how much of an impact hiring from new college grads has on your peak leasing season. Do you tend to see more people trading up into Mid-America Apartment Communities, Inc. units, or are they more first-time renters?

Timothy P. Argo: It is pretty consistent, in our view. We have been looking at some of that—our younger age demographic—with all the talk around some of the unemployment rates for that group in particular. If we look at Q1, for example, about 20% of our move-ins are age 25 or under, and that has been really consistent over the last several years. That has not really ticked up or down. We also look at whether more of our residents need a guarantor, indicating perhaps that their economic situation is not great, and that has actually come down a little bit.

On average, about 20% of our move-ins are in that 25-and-under age group, but we are not seeing any pressure or changes in that as of yet.

Operator: Our next question will come from the line of James Feldman with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.

James Feldman: Great. Thank you. I think you had mentioned pulling back on development starts this year. Obviously, supply has come down in a pretty meaningful way, and some of your competitors are talking about ramping up into 2028 and 2029. Can you talk about that decision and how we should be thinking about development going forward? Is it more project-specific, or is there a bigger picture story we should be thinking about?

Adrian Bradley Hill: Yes, Jamie. This is Brad. The development reduction for the year of $50 million really is just a couple months’ delay on average in terms of starts for deals, and that is deal-specific, to your point. That does not signal any change in our posture toward development. We still believe in the merits of developing, in particular the benefits of that for long-term TSR performance. You will continue to see us focus on development. We own or control, I think, 16 sites with approvals for over 4 thousand units, so that will be a continued focus for us. We will continue to focus on spending $300 million to $400 million a year.

The start level numbers for each year can vary a little bit as it can be a little lumpy—you have to go through the approval process, which can take a little longer than you expect sometimes. But our strategy and focus on development is the same as it has been, and we will continue to expand that pipeline to the $1.0 billion to $1.2 billion range that we have talked about previously.

Operator: Our next question will come from the line of Stephen Thomas Sakwa with Evercore ISI. Please go ahead.

Stephen Thomas Sakwa: Thanks. Kind of a big question. If I told you that you could double the size of your portfolio today, what are the pluses and minuses of managing a substantially larger portfolio than what you currently have? Is the data flow that much better that it gives you better insight on pricing? Are there more operational challenges? How do you think about size and whether you need to be much bigger than you currently are?

Adrian Bradley Hill: Well, I think certainly size is not everything. We have been through two significant events in our recent history as an organization, and those events are very difficult to do, take a lot of time, and there is risk associated with them, but there can be a lot of upside if they are done right and the cultures align well between the organizations. At the scale that we are today, to double our portfolio size, I would not think there is a material improvement in information flow, data flow, and things of that nature that you mentioned. Cost of capital is probably very similar. It really depends on what we can get operational efficiency-wise.

Some of the things that we are doing on the operating side—from centralization and specialization and how we are approaching “potting” properties and things of that nature—having scale near to one another within a particular market is very meaningful in that process. We could certainly see some ability to drive some level of operating efficiencies, depending on where the properties are located.

Operator: Our next question will come from the line of Analyst with Cantor Fitzgerald. Please go ahead.

Analyst: So about a year ago, Brad, we had a dinner with the group, and there was some indication from my perspective that this time a year later, we would be talking about a lot more in the way of stabilized new lease rate growth and so on, and obviously it has not quite happened yet. In your mind, taking over CEO around that time, 13 months ago, are you surprised by the tail of supply impacting that line item in particular? Or is everything lining up the way you thought? We all know the biblical nature of the supply that came online in your markets over the past couple of years.

I am curious if this is coming as more of a surprise or not, in alignment with past cycles of supply that you have been through. I just wanted to get your temperature on that topic. Thanks.

Adrian Bradley Hill: Thanks. I recall our dinner, and certainly at that time I believed that we would see better improvement on the new lease rate side over the past year, which is what our expectations had been as related to our forecast for last year and going into this year. You mentioned the biblical size of supply, and I think it is important to put that in perspective. Over a three-year period, we had five years’ worth of supply delivered into our markets, and so there is a level of lingering impact associated with that supply. The good news is that absorption is happening. Market-level occupancies are improving.

When we had that dinner, I did not think that new lease rates would take as long as they have to see the improvement that we have seen. But the good news is we are seeing improvement. The other positives are that the demand within our region continues to hold in quite well, outperforming other regions of the country sometimes by a factor of two to three. The other good news is that the supply pipeline is significantly declining. If you look at the size of what is being delivered in our region this year, it is down 40% from last year.

While it is taking a little bit longer, if you keep in perspective the magnitude of the decline that we are seeing in supply in our region of the country—which is declining to a larger degree than in other regions—balanced with the fact that demand continues to be resilient, we are pretty excited about what the trajectory looks like from here. Yes, last year I would have hoped that it would have improved a little bit quicker, but that is not where we are, and as we look forward based on supply and demand fundamentals, we are pretty excited.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Analyst with Baird. Please go ahead.

Analyst: Hey, thanks. Good morning, everyone. Do you expect to continue buying additional land parcels for the balance of the year?

Adrian Bradley Hill: Yes, this is Brad. I think it depends. We will likely have additional land parcels that we purchase later in the year, but the way that we are approaching buying land at this point is we are not looking to land bank various sites. We do not want to buy land that is speculative. We want to buy land that we have a clear and near-term path to being able to put into production.

Based on timing, you could see us buy a piece of land at some point this year that maybe starts construction next year, but certainly not with the intent to buy it and hold it for a few years before we are able to start construction on it. That is not what we are looking to do. We want to keep the balance sheet very efficient and be able to put land into production pretty quickly after we buy it.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Julien Blouin with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Julien Blouin: Thank you for taking my question. Following on from Steve’s question, you are probably the best authorities in the space on public-to-public apartment deals given the Post and Colonial deals. Obviously, there are the initial G&A and overhead benefits that can be realized, but you mentioned the potting benefit. How long does that take to realize? Then, if we think about what is different today versus when you did the Post and Colonial transactions, are there any additional benefits today—whether on the technology front, the AI front, Wi-Fi rollout, and scale with vendors—that would make a deal make even more sense today?

Adrian Bradley Hill: Hey, Julie. This is Brad. In terms of potting, that is more related to the quality of the property managers that you have and the opportunities that present themselves in terms of how quickly those can manifest. Those can be relatively quick endeavors. You have to make sure you have the right people. As you know, in any merger, this is a very people-intensive business, and people can quickly determine whether or not you have success at a property level. You have to be really careful with what you are doing there. In terms of the other benefits, I think the difference today versus when we executed the Post and Colonial mergers is on the technology front.

The cost of technology today continues to increase, but the ability to spread that cost across a bigger footprint and a bigger platform is greater. One of the things that we have been focused on as an organization is continuing to improve our platform capabilities and be able to drive more out of our portfolio than what others are able to do. Part of that is the technology. Part of that is the centralization and specialization that we have and that we are focused on so that the marginal G&A cost and technology cost associated with adding additional units is less.

I do think that is a difference today versus what it was ten or so years ago when we went through mergers.

Operator: Our next question will come from the line of Alex Kim with Zelman and Associates. Please go ahead.

Alex Kim: I wanted to ask about how lease-up velocity has trended so far year to date, and fitting that into the context of acquiring projects that are in lease-up. Is that still a strategy that you maintain on a go-forward basis? Thanks.

Timothy P. Argo: Alex, it is Tim. I will answer the first part of that question. We have seen lease-up velocity pick up, particularly as we got into late Q1 and then into April. It is a little bit slower in Q4 and Q1 with traffic patterns and seasonal patterns, but if we look at April, for example, the five properties that are in our lease-up bucket averaged about 23 move-ins on average in the month of April. We are starting to see that momentum pick up. We have really good lead volume. We are not seeing things get slower or concessions go up or anything like that.

We are starting to see momentum there, and as we get into the spring and summer—much like we have talked about with our same store portfolio—we would expect to continue to see momentum in that group. In terms of acquisitions, you asked if we are focused on buying properties in lease-up. At this point, the best use of our capital is not acquiring, so we are not active in that market today. We continue to evaluate projects. I would also say we have not seen as many lease-up trades or lease-ups coming to market to trade as we have historically.

If a seller is bringing a property to market today, they want it as leased-up and occupied as they can get so that there is less risk for the buyer and they can get better pricing at the moment. We will continue to look at lease-ups as they come to market, and if we find an opportunity that makes sense, for the right price we would not hesitate, but we are just not seeing a lot of opportunities on that front that make sense today.

Operator: Our next question will come from the line of Ann Chan with Green Street. Please go ahead.

Ann Chan: Hi. Thanks for taking my question. Going back to other income, were there any unusual or nonrecurring items that caused a drag or a boost on other income in the first quarter? And unrelated, when do you expect the benefit from the delayed Wi-Fi rollout in 2025 to start flowing to 2026, if not already?

A. Clay Holder: And just to confirm, are you referring to same store other income?

Operator: Correct.

A. Clay Holder: Yes. In Q1, we saw a little bit of benefit from the rollout of Wi-Fi, but not much—not really driving that in the quarter itself. We would expect to begin to see that benefit showing up in the numbers as we move into the spring and summer leasing seasons, as we start having those leases turn. That would be the time we would push the Wi-Fi revenue to the residents along with the expense that we incur for that as well. That should come toward the middle and latter part of the year.

Timothy P. Argo: I will just add one point to that. We are expecting somewhere in the neighborhood of $3 million or so of revenue in 2026 related to those Wi-Fi projects, which is certainly backloaded, as Clay mentioned. Most of those projects got completed late Q4 and early Q1, and we price those out as the leases expire and the units turn. We expect a lot more impact from those as we get through the year, and then it will compound in 2027 and beyond.

Operator: Our next question will come from the line of Nicholas Philip Yulico with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Nicholas Philip Yulico: Hi, good morning. This is Elmer Chang on with Nick. I wanted to go back on the concession topic. How is concession burn-off trending in some of your underperforming markets of late, like Charlotte, Austin, Nashville, etc.? When do you expect you will reach a normalized level on concessions in those markets this year? I know you mentioned concession usage ticking down through April and that you expect new lease rates will improve throughout the year. Is that outlook mostly driven by your stronger markets like Atlanta, Dallas, and Orlando? Thank you.

Timothy P. Argo: This is Tim. We have started to see, in some of those weaker markets, concessions come down a little bit. I have talked a few times about some of the more urban submarkets that have a lot of lease-ups, where they were averaging closer to three months. Now that is more in the eight to ten week concession environment, so it has come down a little bit there. In a market like Austin, we have started to see it come down a little bit. We were pushing across the entire market close to almost two months broadly, and that has started to tick down slowly. We are particularly seeing better performance in the southern part of Austin.

Northern Austin—Georgetown and that area—is still seeing a lot of pressure and not seeing much relief there. Phoenix is another one where we have started to see concessions come down a little bit. Occupancy in that market has stabilized, at least for us, over the last couple of quarters, and while still underperforming broadly, we are starting to see some momentum out of Phoenix. You mentioned Charlotte—that is still right in the mix of it. It got a double-digit percent of inventory delivered over the last couple of years.

I think that is going to be a struggle through 2026, and that is probably more of a 2027 recovery story in Charlotte, but we feel great about that market long term—tons of demand and jobs coming there—but just a whole lot of supply right now.

Operator: We have no further questions. I will return the call to Mid-America Apartment Communities, Inc. for closing comments.

Adrian Bradley Hill: We appreciate everyone joining. I know we will see you soon at various conferences. Thank you.

Operator: This concludes today’s program. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect at any time.