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Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to United Dominion Realty Trust second quarter 2005 results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, there will be a question and answer session. [OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS]
I would now like to turn the conference over to Larry Thede, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
- VP, IR
Thank you. Thanks to all of you for joining us for our second quarter financial results conference call. Our second quarter press release and supplemental disclosure package were distributed yesterday afternoon. And this morning we filed form 8-K with the SEC. In the supplemental disclosure package, we have reconciled all nonGAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures, in accordance with Reg G requirements.
If you did not receive a copy, you can access the package at our website www.udrt.com. Then click on the Investor Relations tab and then Press Releases. Click on the supplement link when you pull up yesterday's release. You'll find the direct link to the supplemental data, as well as a link to the 2005 guidance details contained in the body of the press release as well.
We will begin the call with management's formal comments after which we will open the call to your questions. I would like to note that statements made during this conference call, which are not historical, may constitute forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Although we believe the expectations reflected in any forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, we can give no assurance that our expectations will be attained. Factors and risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by forward-looking statements are detailed in yesterday's press release, and are included in our filings with the SEC. We do not undertake duty to update any forward-looking statements.
I would now like to turn the call over to our President and CEO, Tom Toomey.
- President, CEO
Thanks, Larry. Thanks to all of you for participating in today's call. Joining me from the Company are Martha Carlin, Erin Ditto, Chris Genry, Mike Kelly. Rod Neuheardt, Scott Shanaberger, and Mark Wallis. To insure that we have sufficient time to address your questions, I will offer the prepared remarks, and then the entire management team will participate in the questions and answer session.
I intend to cover four topics during this call. Second quarter operating performance, focusing on same-store sales results and trends, an update on the portfolio quality and positioning activities, an update on the balance sheet activities and strategy, 2005 guidance.
I'll start with our second quarter performance. Apartment market fundamentals continue to strengthen. I'm happy to report that all revenue drivers continue to improve. First up, occupancy. Second quarter same store occupancy was at 94.4%, up from 93.9% last year, and in-line with the first quarter level. 98 communities, or nearly 50% of the portfolio, are above 95%. 140 communities, or 65% of the portfolio, is above 94%.
Looking to July, occupancy is at 94.2% and traffic continues to be strong. These statistics signal that the national market is poised for a solid second half of 2005. Rents and reimbursements. We have all seen periods over the last four years in which occupancies increased to a high level, but we were unable to sustain rent increases. It looks like we have crossed that barrier. For the second quarter, we reported $741 a month in collections per occupied home, up $9 per month versus last quarter, and up 2.9%, or $21 a month versus last year.
During the quarter, 32% of our leases repriced. So a $9 a month increase in rent per occupied home, translates to an average rent increase of $30 a month on new leases. Or a 4% annual increase. Meaning rents increasing continues to accelerate. Monthly reimbursements per occupied home was at $31, up from $30 last year, and stable with last quarter. We've been successful in shifting more utility costs to our residents, and are currently recovering approximately 58% of all utilities.
Concessions continue to fall with total concession costs down 28% from last year, and down 18% from last quarter. To make this more meaningful, concessions per move-in for the second quarter were $238, or approximately 1.5 weeks of rent. Versus last year's $325, and last quarter's $329.
Fee collections increased 5% in the second quarter. Another good signal. To wrap up the revenue discussion, let me highlight that 83% of our same store communities recorded revenue growth year-over-year, and 76% sequentially.
Turning to expenses, I would highlight that revenue growth continues to outpace expense growth, and expenses continue to be managed within our plan. Same store expenses declined 0.8% sequentially, and were up 1.9 versus last year's second quarter. I expect to see higher expenses in the second half of the year, primarily due to real estate taxes and payroll.
To summarize operating results, my guess is that our 4.4 same store sales NOI growth is likely to be at the high end of our peer group. This will make three quarters in a row, that we have been near the top of the apartment REIT group, not bad for a national company.
I'm encouraged by the continued improvements in other key areas, in particular, associate turnover and resident turnover. Associate turnover was down to 46% annual rate versus 50% last year. And resident turnover was down 64% annually, an improvement over the 65% last year. These results confirm that our team, led by Martha Carlin and Erin Ditto are hitting on all cylinders. And that we have critical momentum going into the second half of the year.
Let me now turn my comments to an updating you on the portfolio quality and positioning. Our press release contains detail on our second quarter activity, which includes a $38 million acquisition, and a $100 million sale. We've completed two transactions so far in July.
Last week we closed on the purchase of a 284 home community in Seattle, the purchase price was 37.2 million, or $131,000 a door. A 5.3 cap. This community was built in 2003. Is 93% occupied and has average monthly rent of $1,150 per month.
The seller has another property in Seattle under contract to us for $29 million, that we expect to close in the second half of the year, when the construction and lease up is completed. We will issue approximately $6 million in OP units, priced at $24.93 to fund this transaction, with the balance paid in cash.
During the third quarter, we expect to close the last leg of the Essex portfolio. It is a $63 million transaction for 250 homes recently constructed and leased in Santa Clara, California, at a 5.5 cap. This month we also closed on the sale of eight properties in Dallas, comprising 2700 apartment homes, and two properties in Charlotte, North Carolina, representing approximately 700 homes. The gross selling price for these communities was $138.5 million, producing a $22 million gain.
The sales were an average cap rate of 6.2, or $57,000 a home. We took back $124 million installment note on the portfolio, payable over 18 months bearing interest at 6.75. We are actively marketing nearly 5300 additional homes in the Carolinas and Texas markets. Total proceeds may exceed $300 million at a sub-6 cap rate. The consummation of the sale of those homes is dependent upon the price and tax structure.
To summarize our 2005 activity, for acquisitions and dispositions, through today, plus what is under contract, we have sales totaling 6,000 homes for 306 million at a 6 cap, and acquisitions totaling 1,645 homes for $273 million at a 5.5 cap.
Our development pipeline has grown to over 2400 homes. It is detailed in Attachment 8 of our press release. Construction cost are budgeted at 238 million with an average yield of 7.5%. Attachment 8 also lists five communities that are undergoing full rehabs. Nearly 2300 homes are included.
We expect to realize stabilized returns in excess of 8% on the $62 million invested. We are considering adding 6,000 homes in 20 communities to this initiative. During the quarter, we completed 1,000 kitchens and bath upgrades, at a cost of $7 million. We're earning a 10% return on these investments, and we estimate this initiative will add 30 basis points to our second quarter same store sales results.
We have been pursuing a strategy of portfolio repositioning, focusing on acquisitions and locations and projects among the best job growth, and department demands and selling low-growth markets. These transactions continue to shift our market concentrations, as well as the quality of our portfolio. When you pro-forma on completed transactions, and what we have contemplated our market concentrations will be California will be 26% of our NOI, Florida, 15% and Texas will be reduced to 10%. Our monthly revenue per occupied home will be $830 a month, where as a year ago it was $760.
Turning my attention to condo conversions, we sold 27 condos in the quarter, producing a gain of 1.9 million, or $0.01 a share. We have 158 more homes sold but not closed, and to expect to see the gains from those sales in the second half of '05 and early '06. We have an additional roughly 500 that have been approved for conversion.
Let me now turn my my attention to the balance sheet and our comments. During the quarter, we extended the terms of our bank line, an additional two years, and reduced the all-in cost by 17 basis points. Our floating rate debt at the end of the quarter was 23.7%. We issued 50 million of senior unsecured notes through reopening our 5.25 senior note program, due in January of 2015. We elected to convert 75 million of variable rate debt to fixed rate. The current rate is 3.77, will float until December 1st, and then convert to a 7-year fixed rate at 4.86. We will continue to monitor markets, and look for opportunities in this area.
We are very happy with our key balance sheet ratios and confident they will continue to improve as our operations improve. We have two balance sheet opportunities on our radar screen, the first being 268 million of debt at interest rates above 7%, and 135 million of Preferred B securities outstanding with an 8.6 coupon. We will consider using condo gains to trigger the potential prepayment of these securities, and we estimate for every $75 million of debt refinancing we will generate a penny of accretion.
The topic of guidance, our third quarter guidance for FFO is $0.39 to $0.42 per share. This range reflects our expectations that we will complete a number of dispositions during the quarter, and provides for certain debt prepayment penalties. We are tightening our full year guidance to $1.59 to $1.65, and full details of our guidance is on our website. The short version, the tightening is reflective of operations are exceeding our original expectations. The acquisition sales balance has flipped to a net seller.
But I would add that we are very comfortable with the Street's current consensus estimates of $1.61. Those are my opening comments. I would now turn the call open to our question and answer question. Operator?
Operator
Thank you, at this time we will begin the question and answer session. [OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS] Our first question comes from Jordan Sadler with Smith Barney. Please go ahead.
- Analyst
Good afternoon, everybody.
- VP, IR
Good afternoon, Jordan. Good to hear your voice.
- Analyst
Good, as yours. I guess my first question is on dispositions, you upped the guidance. What's the timing expectation obviously in the second half? Is it sort of more back end weighted toward the end of the year? And then once you make it through these dispositions, if you could give us a little color on markets. How much additional portfolio culling do you think needs to be done, to get to where you want to be?
- President, CEO
Jordan, this is Toomey. With respect to the timing of the dispositions, these are pretty complicated transactions. We have upped our guidance for a range of 380 to 650. Obviously the 380 we think is pretty comfortable and in the bag. The 650 is, I would weight it toward the latter part of the year, and we're sensitive to price and tax structuring of that transaction. Overall, we think we're going to be able to, during the year, get to a 6 cap on those activities.
So your second question, what does the portfolio look like, post these transactions, and what we're contemplating? I would tell you that I think we're rounding the last lap on the portfolio repositioning. We will continue to be active sellers in the market. We will probably be looking at the Carolinas, and seeing what we can dispose of in that market.
But we're very comfortable the balance of this portfolio. It's shaping up very nicely, and we would see that the dilution of the disposition programs would start to be minimized. I would highlight Texas has gone from when I came to the company 25% of the company, to now going to be around 10%. We've really reduced our exposure to our markets where there's a high propensity of building, and it's quick building. We've really brought up California to 26, Florida to 15, the DC markets another 10.
So we've made great progress in not just the location, but the quality of it, which is reflected in our rents. When I came four years ago we were probably averaging rents in the 700, 705 number, and four years later we're going to be approaching 830. I'd like to say a lot of that credit goes to Martha and her team for raising rents. Lot of it goes to Mark and his team for getting the right assets.
So, I think we're rounding the portfolio quality out very well. And with our rehab, and kitchen and bath programs, we're going to be able to get more out of that portfolio than a lot of other people are going to get in those markets, because we're reinvesting on very good returns. Kitchen and bath stuff and it's 10 to 12s, and the rehabs are 8 to 10s, that's better than you can get in a development pipeline, or any other program that I'm aware of today.
- Analyst
I heard in your remarks attributed 30 basis points or so to the same store, of the same store revenue growth for the kitchen and baths in this quarter? If you were to total up the last four quarters just to have an apples-to-apples comp, what do you think the overall contribution is from the kitchen and bath you've done in the last 12 months?
- President, CEO
If you were to go back and look at our trends, you would find that it's contributing less and less, as were the markets are firming, and we're able to raise rents on a wider range of units. I know last year I was looking at our comments and we kept saying it may have contributed 40 to 50 basis points of same stores, and now it's down to 30. And I think it's that range is probably what we would see going forward or less, as we're able to just improve our rents because of market demand.
What I would also add is that kitchen and bath, you know, we've continued to improve the quality and the appeal of that program, and what the theory we are starting to gather some steam on, is that when you make an improvement, you walk into an apartment, what is the first thing you see? You see a kitchen and bath. Usually you see the kitchen. You don't see the bath.
It's helping us sell our apartment homes, and sell those rent increases, but it's a distinction that helps us, and I think in the future we're going to start tracking it and reporting it, how much it helps us on resident retention and turn costs. So we'll see if that bears out.
- Analyst
Does that 30 or 40 basis points, it's not cumulative per quarter? It's not like 120 basis points over the last four quarters?
- President, CEO
No. It's 30 quarter over last year.
- Analyst
Year-over-year?
- President, CEO
Yeah.
- Analyst
Okay. Okay. That's it. Thanks.
- President, CEO
Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Rob Stevenson, Morgan Stanley.
- Analyst
Good afternoon, guys. Tom or Martha, can you talk about what's been the performance for the Essex portfolio that you have closed on, relative to expectations?
- SVP, Director of Property Operation
Yes, this is Martha. We've seen Essex is in-line up through the acquisition, from acquisition to now. We're meeting pro-forma. We're exceeding our rent growth estimates transaction to date by about 150 basis points. And our average rent increases have been in the 7% range. So we did see a little bit of softness in the occupancy as we pushed rents ahead of what our plan was a little bit. But, we have gained that occupancy back and the acquisition is on-track.
- Analyst
Okay. And then, Tom, how comfortable are you with even doing additional dispositions over and above the 6,000 units, if the acquisition market stays the way it is? I know that from previous conversations, you were always concerned about pushing the dividend coverage. I mean, where does this sort of get to a break point for you?
- President, CEO
Well, I mean, I think we'd continue to look at pricing in the market and see if someone had made us an offer on an asset, we certainly would sell it. If we thought it was an attractive price, we've got plenty of dividend coverage, even after this. You're still running on an AFFO basis at 90% dividend coverage. So we have room to continue to sell more should it be. I think what we're really looking is at structured transactions similar to the one that Mike Kelly and the team negotiated this last July, in which we took back notes to defer taxes.
But also move capital to the future, when we think there's going to be more opportunities available to us, either to pay down debt. to call the Preferred B paper, or the acquisition that may flip in our favor. So, I think we're continuing to look at sales, but structured sales. Would be more than just a spot sale program, if you would.
- Analyst
How significant once you've completed these sales, do you expect the savings to be from exiting markets, and being able to consolidate some of the property operations, et cetera?
- President, CEO
Well, we are looking at it. Right now our plan was to carry capacity. How much of that we currently contemplate there's 12,000 to 15,000 apartment homes that we could bring online, and not change our overhead number to manage those. I think that's our first tack. We don know if we are going to see a portfolio or opportunity of that magnitude. So there may be some changes on the horizon to that, but what I would emphasize is that Martha and her team are doing a great job, and should the size of the Company shrink, they'll respond accordingly.
- Analyst
Okay. Then, last question. On the development pipeline, do you see either wholly-owned or through joint ventures, that accelerating meaningfully in future quarters, or is it pretty much going to remain about this level, do you think?
- SEVP, Legal, Acquisitions, Dispositions & Dev
This is Mark Wallis. I think we see some opportunities to increase it over the levels we've operated at the last two years. You'll note we asked on a couple presale agreements. We think we can do a few more of those. And we've got a strong team based in the Southwest, if they can find appropriate opportunities. So I think we can, one, increase the presales and we are finishing up our Rancho Cucamonga project. At the end of the year we're finishing up our project in [Las Buenas]. We've got capacity to add a couple deals a year without adding any overhead. We'll seek to do that.
- President, CEO
I would just add, this is Tom, I think the presales are a great format for us. We're able to tap local market expertise, and then as you know, you've got to be a guy that is in the market every day, to have a successful development program. We've got a great one in the Southwest, in Mark Wood and his team in Dallas. Beyond that, the cost of trying build one out versus, you know, sharing the upside with some of the local capable guys, we're more in the local capable. Mark and I have both come out of the Lincoln system. We're familiar with that system and its programs and successes, and we like that format.
- Analyst
All right. Thanks, guys.
- President, CEO
Thank you.
Operator
your next question comes from Ross Nussbaum with Banc of America Securities.
- Analyst
It's Karen Ford, here with Ross. You said you were going to look for opportunities to improve the balance sheet, and you made good progress on your floating rate debt balance this quarter. What do you think your long term goal is for the percentage of floating rate debt as a percentage of your total debt, and how do you view that, as far as earnings growth in 2006?
- President, CEO
Well, I'll take a stab and ask Rod to fill in the blanks. You know, we started out at the beginning of the year at a goal of getting the 20% by the end of the year. We still see that as a reasonable goal. I think, like the rest of you, at the beginning of the year, we saw 5 on the treasury for a 10-year and, in fact, it's not gotten to that level.
I'm interested to see how the Chinese, and their position, changes that Treasury market and, we'll respond to, kind of what has been our pattern, which is when the market overreacts to use, we jump in and continue to lock it very favorable rates. 5.25 for 10-year paper is still pretty darn good. 4.86 for 7-year paper. I mean I have always thought that if I could borrow money at that, I'll make money over time. So I like the 20% range. We'll be opportunistic at getting it to there. Should we end up with spare cash out of our sales program, we certainly have some opportunities in the balance sheet, and paying off market -- above market debt. And we'll do that. So, Rod, what would you add?
- SVP, Finance
We actually started out probably in the 28% range. We have made a lot of progress working that variable rate debt number down into the 23% range now. As the curve flattens, we continue to bring it closer to 20, and it won't cost us a lot to get there.
- Analyst
Okay. Next one, turn to the -- you've increased your condo gain income and your guidance. Did I hear you right that you may consider using those dollars to pay prepayment penalties in the second half of the year?
- President, CEO
Yes. You heard exactly right. We look at that first it's shaping up when we originally looked at it, as a program whereby we would pick off second, third tier markets and opportunistically convert a few. That's still kind of the idea behind it. But there's a lot of profits in that program. We think it's a sustainable program, particularly with the compositions of assets we have in the DC, Florida, and California markets. So we think it's going to be sustainable at that new level of guidance.
- Analyst
Okay.
- President, CEO
What we would do with the income is continue to try to convert it to recurring income in one respect , by triggering the prepayments and refinancing. The range for our guidance is primarily built around that variable.
We don't know how much debt we're going to be able to prepay in the market, that makes sense. And while we're comfortable with the condo gains, they may just drop to the bottom line, and not be able to use the offset, because we can't buy the debt in the market. We hope we can and we're continuing to pursue that. But a lot of people just don't want to give up our paper.
- Analyst
Got you. Just one final question. A market question. Dallas continues to look really bad. I know it's been one of your 1-star markets for a while, but it doesn't seem to be getting any positive momentum back. Can you talk about your expectations for Dallas?
- SVP, Director of Property Operation
Yes, Karen, this is Martha. Dallas continues to have sluggish job growth. Continues to have competition on the low-cost home side. We saw a slight uptick in the number of people who moved out this quarter to new homes. We're still seeing pressure on the home side, and not enough job growth to spur the jump back, that we've seen in a number of the other markets. So I don't really anticipate Dallas improving a whole lot between now and the end of the year, unless we start to see some more job growth there.
- Analyst
Okay. Thank you.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Anthony Paolone, JP Morgan Securities.
- Analyst
Thank you. Am I doing the math right? You said 27 condo sales in the quarter. Take the 1.8 million in gains and divide it by the 27, or is there something else in the gains there?
- SEVP, Legal, Acquisitions, Dispositions & Dev
This is Mark Wallis. That's correct.
- Analyst
I guess it's about $70,000 a unit. Is that a good rate to use going forward? What's the margin on those sales that that represents?
- SEVP, Legal, Acquisitions, Dispositions & Dev
Well, that particular community's got the highest pretax margin of any of the ones that we're looking for in the future. Really, if you look at what's coming out, and we have assets in Portland, assets in Scottsdale, and then one in Tampa. The range is going to be, as we go on down the road, more in the $40,000 to $45,000 a door range.
- Analyst
What's your sales price on those?
- SEVP, Legal, Acquisitions, Dispositions & Dev
The sales price on the one in Maryland, which is the one that we sold this quarter for $328,000 a door. So that was a very nice property to convert. Very good. And the prices accelerated way beyond our projections. Probably $35,000 a door beyond our original projections.
- Analyst
Okay. And the 158 that you said are just waiting to close basically those are more in the 40 to 50 range?
- SEVP, Legal, Acquisitions, Dispositions & Dev
Those are. Those would be -- it's a blend between units still being sold in the Maryland project, and our Scottsdale, Arizona, deal which is a little bit lower-priced entry product. That's averaging that down. That's after tax and all this.
- Analyst
The 500 then in the pipeline out to the future that you mentioned that are approved, of those properties, what kind of work needs to be put in to make that conversion, or are those pretty easy to just flip the switch?
- SEVP, Legal, Acquisitions, Dispositions & Dev
Our philosophy is to really put a lot of dollars into them. So it's really a totally clean unit. Everything done to it. We spend on average about $35,000 a door, which is higher than a lot of people are spending. We're harvesting a little bit older product in great locations, and we're getting paid for that. Oftentimes we offer upgrades and the customers are taking the upgrades.
- Analyst
Just this last question, on the $124 million note that you have taken back, when does that mature again?
- CFO
Actually the 12-month note, it matures 12 months from July 1, it pays quarterly, 25% per quarter.
- Analyst
Okay. Great. Thanks.
Operator
Thank you. Our next question comes from Craig Leupold, Green Street Advisors.
- Analyst
Tom, can you give is a little more detail on the note that you guys took back on the Charlotte sales, and just in terms of what kind of loan-to-value does that represent? How much equity is in that project?
- President, CEO
I'll turn it over and let Mike respond to that.
- SVP, Acquisitions
Craig, the note was a 90% LTV note paid quarterly, so 6.75 over the next four quarters. It is actually taken out already. It was a precommitment from the lender so upon the first, October 1st, January 1st, it's preset that the lender funds those dollars, and takes us out. And the note is at 6.75.
- Analyst
Okay. I'm sorry, Mike. It gets taken out this October 1st?
- SVP, Acquisitions
Quarterly. 30 odd million will be taken out this October 1st. It will be -- that $124 million will be taken out in 4, almost equal installments.
- Analyst
Okay. Okay. Thank you.
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, [OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS] One moment please. Our next question comes from Chris Pike, UBS.
- Analyst
Good morning, everybody. Just want to clarify Karen's question before with respect to the prepayments. Is that any prepayment amount, is that baked into the net nonrecurring income line item? Or is there prepayment numbers, or guidance somewhere else in the release? I was under the impression that it's already baked in that 7.2 to 12.6?
- President, CEO
It is in that number.
- Analyst
Okay. Thanks a lot, folks.
Operator
Our next question comes from Richard Paoli, ABP Investments.
- Analyst
Hi, guys. Just two questions. I'm looking at Attachment 9, and down at the bottom it has townhome/condominium dispositions. Is that a listing of the active sales projects going on now? I'm trying to reconcile. I see you have listed 27. Noted 27, but there's 38 homes listed here.
- President, CEO
11 were done during the first quarter at Harding Park. The last one was completed in the second quarter.
- Analyst
I got it. I missed that. And then the other question is, I guess the other projects, the 158 of those incorporated in these projects listed here, that next round.
- President, CEO
We will add those to the bottom of that 9 exhibit as they close. They're under contract. When they close, they've been sold.
- Analyst
Sold to individuals? You guys still retain the asset, is that right? you haven't sold the -- I'm just trying to get an idea of how many communities this encompasses?
- SEVP, Legal, Acquisitions, Dispositions & Dev
This is Mark Wallis. Let me respond to that. The 158 contracts, those were on two communities. Part of them are in the Maryland community. Another is in the Scottsdale community. We anticipate more of those going to contract. It happens every week. Does that answer your question?
- Analyst
It does. If I could be a gadfly. Maybe in the next quarter, if you would list all of the communities that you have active, condo conversion going on it. This is getting a little difficult to keep track of, you know, you're very familiar with, you know, when you say the Scottsdale asset.
- SEVP, Legal, Acquisitions, Dispositions & Dev
Right.
- Analyst
From the outside, I'm just having a little trouble keeping up. And, you know, perhaps maybe we could just get an idea of, you know, the proportion that sold, you know, this 300 units and 150 are closed and X are under contract, et cetera. That would be very helpful.
- President, CEO
Be glad to do it. And is that for purposes that ABP wants to come in and buy them all from us?
- Analyst
Not quite.
- President, CEO
We'd cut you a deal.
- Analyst
I'm sure you would, Tom.
- President, CEO
You've got kids. You're probably thinking ahead, planning for their lives.
- Analyst
Great. Thank you.
Operator
Okay, management, I'm showing we do not have any more audio questions. I'll turn the call back over to you for any closing comments you may have.
- President, CEO
Well, thank you, operator and thank you for those questions. You certainly can see that we're excited about our prospects, and certainly excited about the Company that we built. I continue to get one overriding question from a number of investors which is simply, how do we expand, and how do we deliver on growth in the future? And what I would tell you, and it's worth listening for a few minutes on this. Our portfolio position with over 50% in California, Florida and DC, we should perform better than the national average when it comes to rents, growth in the future.
The second is our kitchen/bath and rehab programs. We have completed over 8,000 kitchen and bath upgrades over the last 2.5 years, spending $40 million, earning in excess of 10% returns. This program will continue, and could be expanded between 20,000 and 30,000 apartment homes on a pretty consistent basis over the life of it.
The rehabs, we certainly have a number of programs, number of homes already, 2,400, in and another 6,000 identified. We're doing very good returns at 8 or better on these. And think that we've really built up a very good team in this area, that can continue to deliver these out of the market returns. Development capabilities, you've seen us expand our development pipeline through the use of local capable talent in relationship, and we think that will continue.
The balance sheet, while we're doing a great job on it, we certainly have a couple more opportunities left, with $400 million of debt preferred that's priced above 7%. We could refinance that saving it 150, 200 basis points when we get there. JV Fund format, we have not utilized this format yet. It is certainly available in the market place, pricing is attractive, we'll see what opportunities present themselves in that arena.
And lastly, the operations. I continue to see the benefits of a great team, leading most markets with their performance. I think this gives us a distinct advantage going to the future.
I thank you all for your time and interest, and certainly appreciate, again, your time and interest. Take care.
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's teleconference. If you would like to listen to a replay of today's conference you may dial-in at 303-590-3000 or 1-800-405-2236. Followed by the access code of 11033157 and then followed by the pound sign. Once again those numbers are 303-590-3000 or 1-800-405-2236. Followed by the access code of 11033157 and then followed by the pound sign.
Thank you for your participation in today's conference. At this time, you may disconnect.