캠든 프로퍼티 트러스트(CPT) 2026년 3분기 실적 발표 콘퍼런스콜: 매출 가이던스 완화 속 FFO 유지

핵심 요약

• 캠든 프로퍼티 트러스트(Camden Property Trust)는 주로 제3자 건설 수수료와 이자 및 기타 수익 증가에 힘입어 2026년 3분기 주당 핵심 FFO(운영자금)가 1.71달러를 기록해 자체 가이던스 중간값을 0.02달러 상회했다고 발표했다.
• 실효 신규 임대료 상승률은 2.0% 하락했고 갱신 계약 상승률은 3.6% 상승했으며, 혼합 임대료 상승률은 1.0%를 기록했다. 혼합 임대료 상승률은 2026년 2분기의 마이너스(-) 0.2%에서 전분기 대비 120bp 개선됐다.
• 경영진은 연간 주당 핵심 FFO 가이던스 중간값을 6.75달러로 유지했으나, 9월의 예상보다 가파른 둔화세를 반영해 동일 매장(same-store) 매출 성장률 중간값을 0.0%로, 동일 매장 순영업소득(NOI) 성장률을 마이너스(-) 1.0%로 각각 하향 조정했다.
• 캠든은 16억 2,500만 달러 규모의 캘리포니아 포트폴리오 매각을 완료했으며, 이후 남아 있던 캘리포니아 토지 포지션을 전량 정리했다. 11월 4일 기준 순차입금 대 EBITDA 비율은 4.0배였으며, 회사의 12억 달러 규모 신용공여 한도 인출 잔액은 전무했다.
• 회사는 3분기 중 약 3억 500만 달러에 3개 주거단지를 인수하여 연초 누적 주거단지 인수 규모를 7억 5,500만 달러로 늘렸다. 그러나 금리가 상승하고 매도인 측이 요구된 가격 조정을 거부하자 2건의 추가 인수와 1건의 토지 매입을 취소했다.
• 경영진은 선벨트(Sunbelt) 지역의 아파트 완공 물량이 7년 만에 최저 수준으로 떨어졌고 공급 정점은 완전히 지났다고 밝혔으나, 지속적인 임대료 할인 혜택과 계절적 유동인구 둔화가 단기 가격 결정력을 계속해서 제약하고 있다고 덧붙였다.

주요 재무 데이터

사업 및 운영 실적

캠든의 동일 매장 포트폴리오는 7월과 8월 동안 예상에 부합하는 실적을 냈으나, 9월 들어 임대 수요가 예상보다 크게 약화됐다. 회사는 계절적 비수기에 접어들면서 임대 활동과 입주율을 방어하기 위해 가격을 인하했다.

여러 시장에서 임대료 할인 혜택이 지속됐으며, 그 범위는 웨스트팜비치의 약 3주에서 오스틴의 최대 2개월분에 달했다. 경영진은 이러한 압박의 주된 원인으로 신규 공급된 자산을 운영하면서 초기 임대 속도를 우선시하는 분양·매각 목적 개발업체들의 영향을 꼽았다.

애틀랜타, 플로리다 남동부, 댈러스, 휴스턴에서는 낮은 할인율이 입주율과 가격을 지지하며 상대적으로 견조한 여건을 나타냈다. 댈러스의 3분기 신규 임대료 상승률은 마이너스(-) 0.1%로 보합세를 기록했고 2024년 저점 대비 700bp 개선됐다. 마이애미, 포트로더데일, 올랜도 역시 경쟁 완화의 초기 징후를 보였다.

덴버와 내슈빌은 부진한 흐름을 지속했다. 경영진은 덴버의 분기 매출이 약 5% 감소한 것에 대해 공용 면적 공과금 재청구를 제한하는 법적 규제의 영향이 컸으며, 이는 2026년에 약 180만 달러의 역풍으로 작용할 것으로 추산된다고 설명했다. 내슈빌은 해당 시장 내 캠든의 2개 단지 중 한 곳에서 진행된 대규모 자본 지출 프로젝트로 인한 차질의 영향을 받았다.

오스틴은 상당한 임대료 할인에도 불구하고 지속적인 운영 개선세를 보였다. 신규 임대료 성장률은 2024년 4분기 마이너스(-) 13.1%에서 2026년 3분기 마이너스(-) 2.5%로 개선됐다. 캠든의 레이니 스트리트(Rainey Street) 자산은 해당 분기 말 98.6%의 입주율을 기록했다.

입주자 유지율은 견조한 수준을 유지했다. 12월과 1월 만기 도래분에 대한 계약 갱신 제안 임대료는 평균 4.5% 인상됐으며, 신규 체결 임대 계약은 9월에서 10월로 넘어가며 뚜렷하게 개선됐다.

자본 배분 및 대차대조표

캠든은 7월 29일 16억 2,500만 달러 규모의 캘리포니아 포트폴리오 매각을 완료했다. 매각 대금은 부채 상환, 자산 인수, 토지 매입, 자사주 매입, 선순위 무보증사채 상환 등에 배분됐다.

회사는 이전 인수 및 자사주 매입 관련 부채를 상환하는 데 9억 달러, 8월 자산 인수 및 토지 매입에 1억 2,500만 달러, 자사주 매입에 5,000만 달러를 집행했다. 분기 말 이후에는 11월 만기 도래한 5억 달러 규모의 선순위 채권 상환과 기업어음(CP) 차입금 축소에 4억 9,500만 달러가 사용됐다. 나머지 5,500만 달러는 현금성 투자 계좌에 예치됐다.

캠든은 롤리 대도시권에서 398가구, 1억 3,000만 달러 규모의 개발 사업인 '캠든 RTP' 착공에 들어갔다. 반면 내슈빌의 '캠든 걸치(Camden Gulch)'와 덴버의 '캠든 베이커(Camden Baker)'는 예상 개발 수익률이 대체 자본 활용 방안에 비해 매력적이지 않아 사업을 진행하지 않기로 결정했다. 회사는 두 부지 모두에 대해 비현금성 손상차손을 계상했다.

경영진은 내슈빌의 기존 자산을 가구당 약 37만 달러에 인수한 반면, 인근 토지 부지를 개발할 경우 가구당 60만 달러 이상의 비용이 들었을 것이라는 점을 강조했다. 캠든은 해당 토지를 보유 상태로 유지하며 보다 유리한 여건에서 개발할 가능성을 열어두었다.

경영진 가이던스

캠든은 2026년 4분기 핵심 FFO 가이던스로 중간값 1.65달러를 포함한 주당 1.63~1.67달러를 제시했다. 3분기 대비 예상되는 감소세는 계절적 요인에 따른 동일 매장 매출 감소, 캘리포니아 자산 매각의 분기 전체 반영, 건설 수수료 및 이자 수익 감소 등을 반영한 것이다. 이러한 요인들은 자산 인수에 따른 NOI 및 이자 비용 감소로 일부 상쇄될 전망이다.

연간 주당 핵심 FFO 가이던스는 6.73~6.77달러로 범위가 좁혀졌으나 중간값 6.75달러는 유지됐다. 제3자 건설 수수료, 이자 및 기타 수익 증가, 비용 절감, 자사주 매입 등이 동일 매장 NOI 감소를 상쇄할 것으로 예상된다.

경영진은 4분기 혼합 임대료 성장률이 소폭 플러스를 유지하겠으나 3분기에 달성한 1.0%는 밑돌 것으로 예상한다. 계약 갱신 성장률은 3%대 중반에 머무르고 신규 임대료 가격은 계절적 하락세를 보일 것으로 전망된다. 회사는 2027년 가이던스를 제시하지 않았으나, 현재 전망에 비추어 볼 때 2027년 진입 시점의 임대료 이월 효과(earn-in)는 보합 수준으로 2026년 진입 당시 상황보다 개선될 것이라고 밝혔다.

리스크 및 주시 사항

• 지속적인 임대료 할인 혜택이 신규 임대 가격 책정에 지속적으로 하방 압력을 가하고 있으며, 특히 오스틴, 덴버, 내슈빌에서 두드러진다.
• 9월 방문·문의 수요가 예상보다 큰 계절적 감소세를 나타냄에 따라, 2026년 잔여 기간에 대한 임대료, 입주율 및 기타 부동산 수익 가정이 하향 조정됐다.
• 금리 상승으로 아파트 거래 활동이 위축되면서 캠든의 계획된 자산 인수가 취소되는 결과를 낳았다.
• 경영진은 아파트 자본화율(Cap Rate)이 약 15~40bp 상승했으며, 이는 자산 가치에 약 3~8%의 변동이 발생했음을 의미한다고 추정하고 있다.
• 수정헌법 제3조(Amendment 3)에 따른 잠재적 플로리다주 재산세 변경 사항은 여전히 불확실한 상태다. 경영진은 상업용 부동산세에 미칠 수 있는 영향에 대해 아직 확정된 바가 없다고 밝혔다.
• 캠든이 현재 시점에서 내슈빌과 덴버 개발 프로젝트를 진행하지 않기로 결정한 데서 알 수 있듯이, 고밀도 프로젝트의 개발 사업성은 여전히 녹록지 않은 상황이다.

애널리스트 Q&A 주요 내용

자사주 매입 대 자산 인수: 경영진은 현재 매수 가능한 인수 건보다 캠든의 주가가 더 뚜렷한 저평가 상태라고 밝혔다. 레버리지가 4.0배 수준인 만큼 회사는 자산 가격이 더 매력적으로 형성될 경우 추가 자사주 매입이나 인수를 진행할 수 있는 여력을 보유하고 있다.

인수 요건: 캠든은 40bp에 가까운 자본화율 상승이 반영된 인수 가격을 선호한다고 밝혔다. 회사는 캘리포니아 자산 매각 이후 세제 효율성 측면에서 2026년 추가 인수가 더 이상 필요하지 않을 것으로 보고 있다.

공급 및 임대료 할인: 경영진은 해당 시장의 아파트 공급 정점은 지났다고 판단하며, 신규 임대 물량 감소가 운영 환경 개선으로 이어질 것으로 기대하고 있다. 다만 분양·매각 목적 개발업체들은 계절적 수요 둔화기 동안 여전히 공격적으로 할인 혜택을 제공했다.

2027년 시장별 편차: 경영진은 공급 압박이 완화되고, 덴버의 공과금 재청구 관련 역풍이 해소되며, 내슈빌의 자본 지출 프로젝트가 완료됨에 따라 캠든 진출 시장 전반의 실적 격차가 좁혀질 것으로 예상하고 있다.

입주율 전략: 캠든은 4분기 입주율이 3분기의 95%대 중반에서 하락한 95%대 초반을 기록할 것으로 예상하고 있다. 경영진은 이것이 입주율 방어를 위해 임대료를 조정하기 전 감수할 수 있는 전분기 대비 최대 하락폭 수준이라고 설명했다.

실적 발표 콘퍼런스콜 전문

전체 실적 발표 컨퍼런스 콜 녹취록

경영진 발표

Kimberly Callahan

Good morning, and welcome to Camden Property Trust Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. I'm Kim Callahan, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations.

Joining me today for our prepared remarks are Ric Campo, Camden's Executive Chairman; Alex Jessett, Chief Executive Officer; Laurie Baker, President and Chief Operating Officer; and Ben Fraker, Chief Financial Officer. Stanley Jones, Senior Vice President of Real Estate Investments, will also be available for the Q&A portion of our call. Today's event is being webcast through the Investors section of our website, camdenliving.com, and a replay will be available shortly after the call ends. And please note, this event is being recorded.

Before we begin our prepared remarks, I would like to advise everyone that we will be making forward-looking statements based on our current expectations and beliefs. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. Further information about these risks can be found in our filings with the SEC and we encourage you to review them. Any forward-looking statements made on today's call represent management's current opinions, and the company assumes no obligation to update or supplement these statements because of subsequent events.

As a reminder, Camden's complete third quarter 2026 earnings release is available in the Investors section of our website at camdenliving.com, and it includes reconciliations to non-GAAP financial measures, which will be discussed on the call. We would like to respect everyone's time and complete our call within 1 hour. So please limit your initial question to one, then rejoin the queue if you have a follow-up question or additional items to discuss. If we are unable to speak with everyone in the queue today, we'd be happy to respond to additional questions by phone or e-mail after the call concludes.

At this time, I'll turn the call over to Ric Campo.

Richard Campo

This quarter's music choice followed a decidedly patriotic theme. Tuesday was election day. And as often is the case, about half the voters are happy with the outcome and half are disappointed. But it's important to remember that we live in the greatest country in the world. And that we have more in common than what divides us. To quote country musician Aaron Tippin, "It's a big old land with countless dreams, happiness ain't out of reach. Hard work pays off the way it should. Yes, I've seen enough to know that we got it good."

Camden operates in great markets in our amazing and resilient country. And it's becoming clear that happiness or a recovery is becoming closer at hand in our high-demand, high-growth markets. I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Team Camden for their commitment to improving the lives of our teammates, our customers and our stakeholders, one experience at a time.

Alex is up next.

Alexander Jessett

Thanks, Ric, and good morning, everyone. First and most importantly, thank you to our Camden team members for delivering yet another strong quarter. And in particular, thank you to our Camden Builders team who continue to deliver outsized fee income, leading to our third quarter core FFO outperformance. Overall, 2026 is playing out much as we expected, showing definite improvements over 2025, but not quite a full recovery.

On the operations front, Camden was the only S&P 500 multifamily REIT to experience sequential improvement for both new lease rates and blended lease rates each quarter this year, and we were the only one with second to third quarter acceleration. Sequentially, blended effective lease rates improved 120 basis points in the third quarter as compared to a 10 basis point sequential decrease this time last year. And on a quarter-over-quarter basis, blended effective lease rates increased 40 basis points as compared to a 40 basis point decrease for the third quarter of last year. Clearly, things are improving.

Last night, we made slight reductions to the midpoint of our anticipated full year same-store revenue and NOI growth as seasonality kicked in a bit more than anticipated in September. Concessions have remained remarkably sticky, seemingly led by many merchant builders now turned reluctant operators. That said, our current expectations for same-store growth still falls squarely within the original guidance we provided earlier this year, and the midpoint of our guidance for core FFO remains unchanged at $6.75 per share. On a macro level, things are also improving as apartment completions in the Sunbelt markets have fallen to a 7-year low with peak supply firmly in the rearview mirror.

Rising interest rates, commodity prices and labor shortages are further hampering new construction starts to mid-2010s levels or below, meaning we should have a long runway with continued low levels of future supply. Apartment absorption remains robust, with year-to-date figures exceeding expectations across many markets. Market rental prices and vacancy trends are also improving. Effective rents for new units have recovered from their lows, though they remain below peak levels in most markets. And rent growth momentum is increasing. After more than 4 years of rising market level vacancy, occupancy rates are gradually improving and reaching more normalized levels.

Affordability and household income dynamics are working in our favor as well. Wage growth has outpaced rent increases for nearly 4 years, improving affordability overall, and the median rent-to-income ratio is declining, which means renters are less burdened than in previous years. Our resident is financially strong and the U.S. economy remains healthy. At the same time, the time line for 30-year-olds to reach household milestones has lengthened with more living with parents or delaying homeownership. Nearly 20% of adults aged 25 to 34 live with their parents, indicating delayed independence but potential future rental demand.

Turning to real estate investments and the market outlook. Apartment transaction volumes increased over the summer, but the market has recently become muted due to rising interest rates. This led us to make the decision to maximize liquidity for future opportunities by canceling the acquisition of 2 operating communities and 1 land parcel, and we do not anticipate any further acquisitions in 2026. Despite our lower-than-anticipated acquisition volume, based upon our most recent tax analysis, we do not believe we will need to pay much, if any, of a special dividend from our California dispositions. This has been a transformative year for Camden. Some may say, in light of the recent interest rate volatility that we were lucky with our timing of the California sale. But luck favors the prepared and I echo Ric's shout out and thanks to our fantastic team members who are always prepared. I continue to be very proud of and impressed by Team Camden.

I will now turn the call over to Laurie Baker, our President and Chief Operating Officer.

Laurie Baker

Thank you, Alex, and good morning, everyone. Camden's third quarter net operating income results were in line with forecasted levels with lower operating expenses, partially offset by a slightly greater than anticipated seasonal slowdown during September. Rental rates for the third quarter had effective new leases down 2% and renewals up 3.6% for a blended rate growth of positive 1%. While renewal growth was in line with our expectations, new lease and blended lease growth were at the low end of our anticipated ranges, likely driven by the persistent concessions that remain in many of our core markets and submarkets.

However, as Alex mentioned, our third quarter rental rate growth showed significant improvement over both the first and second quarters of this year and over the third quarter of 2025. New lease growth showed a 130 basis point improvement from negative 3.3% in the second quarter of 2026 to negative 2% this quarter. Renewal rates improved 80 basis points to 3.6% from 2.8% in the second quarter, and we saw 120 basis point sequential improvement in blended rate growth from negative 0.2% last quarter to positive 1% this quarter. Our preliminary October results reflect occupancy in line with last year at 95.2%, with new lease, renewal and blended rates trending better year-over-year and signed leases improving from September to October.

Resident retention remains strong with very low levels of turnover during October. Renewal offers for residents with December and January expirations were sent out with an average increase of 4.5%. Camden's annualized net turnover rate for third quarter 2026 was 42%, improving from 44% in the third quarter of 2025. And move-outs for home purchases remain well below long-term historical rates at 9.5% for the third quarter. Overall, I'm so pleased with how our teams continue to deliver solid results as we move from our peak leasing season into our typical end-of-year slowdown. We remain focused on the fundamentals, staying close to our markets and making thoughtful pricing decisions and executing with consistency and discipline that have always been hallmarks of Camden.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Ben Fraker, our Chief Financial Officer.

Benjamin Fraker

Thank you, Laurie, and good morning, everyone. I will cover our third quarter results, capital allocation, our balance sheet and liquidity and our fourth quarter and full year outlook. We reported third quarter core FFO of $1.71 per share, $0.02 above the $1.69 midpoint of our guidance, driven primarily by higher third-party construction fees and higher interest and other income. Our same-store portfolio performed in line with expectations through the first 2 months of the quarter with greater-than-expected seasonality in September reflected in our revised fourth quarter and full year outlook.

We closed the $1.625 billion sale of our California portfolio on July 29, completing a large component of our 2026 capital recycling plan. Here is how we have used those proceeds: $900 million to repay the debt that funded our earlier share repurchases and acquisitions, $125 million to fund our August operating acquisition and land purchase, $50 million to repurchase shares in August and early September, $495 million after quarter end towards the redemption of our $500 million of senior notes due in November and to pay down borrowings under our commercial paper program, and $55 million remaining in cash investment accounts for general corporate purposes.

On the investment side, we acquired 3 communities during the quarter for approximately $305 million, bringing year-to-date community acquisitions to $755 million. In development, we started construction on Camden RTP, a 398-unit $130 million community in the Raleigh metro area on a site we purchased in May. Separately, we decided not to move forward with the Camden Gulch in Nashville and Camden Baker in Denver development projects at this time as we want to ensure we are allocating capital to projects with the best possible returns. We recorded noncash impairment charges on those 2 sites based upon current third-party estimated market values.

We also recorded a small noncash impairment on our Arts District parcel in Los Angeles. We sold that parcel after quarter end for $10.7 million, and we now have no remaining assets in California. On share repurchases, we bought back $50 million during the quarter at an average price of $105.34. Since the third quarter of 2025, we have repurchased a total of $740 million worth of shares with $248 million remaining available under our current program. On financing, we funded a new $350 million unsecured term loan due July 2027 and paid off a $12 million secured note just before quarter end. After quarter end, we redeemed our $500 million of senior notes at par that had a floating rate of 5.2% using sale proceeds and commercial paper. And we have no significantly dilutive debt maturities coming due over the next 8 quarters.

On liquidity, as of November 4, we had nothing outstanding under our $1.2 billion credit facility as well as $55 million in cash investment accounts. This gives us ample liquidity to fund future cash needs, including the remaining cost of our current development pipeline. With leverage at 4.0x net debt to EBITDA and multiple sources of capital, we have significant financial flexibility.

Turning to our outlook. For the fourth quarter, we are providing core FFO guidance of $1.63 to $1.67 per share, with a midpoint of $1.65 compared to third quarter core FFO of $1.71 per share. This $0.06 per share sequential decline results from $0.01 of lower same-store NOI, resulting from lower seasonal revenues partially offset by lower expenses, $0.06 from a full quarter without NOI from our California dispositions, $0.04 from lower third-party construction fees and interest income, offset by $0.01 from incremental NOI from our 2026 acquisitions and $0.04 from lower interest expense driven by the October repayment of our $500 million senior notes and a full quarter of debt payoffs funded by the California sale.

For the full year, we are maintaining our core FFO midpoint of $6.75 per share with an updated range of $6.73 to $6.77. Relative to our prior outlook, slightly lower same-store NOI is offset by higher third-party construction fees, higher interest and other income and the incremental benefit from our third quarter share repurchases. We are revising our full year same-store guidance to reflect operating trends through the third quarter and our expectations for the remainder of the year. The midpoint of our revised same-store guidance is within the range we gave at the beginning of the year with revenue growth of 0.0% compared to our prior outlook of 0.5%, expense growth of 1.75% compared to 2.5%, NOI growth of negative 1.0% compared to negative 0.6%.

The lower revenue outlook primarily reflects greater-than-anticipated seasonality in the fourth quarter, resulting in slightly lower-than-anticipated rents, occupancy and other property income. Importantly, our expense outlook continues to improve. We now expect full year same-store expense growth of 1.75%. That is 75 basis points better than our prior midpoint and 125 basis points better than our original beginning-of-the-year guidance. The improvement reflects continued expense discipline, including lower repairs and maintenance and property tax savings. We're pleased to maintain our full year core FFO midpoint of $6.75 per share as lower operating expenses and higher third-party fees offset the slightly lower revenues.

To close, this was a quarter of execution. We closed the California sale, we put that capital to work in newer Sunbelt communities. We kept our balance sheet strong and flexible with leverage at 4.0x, and we delivered core FFO above the midpoint of our guidance. Thank you, and we will now open the call to questions.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] And our first question for today will come from Nick Joseph with Citi.

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Eric Wolfe

It's Eric here with Nick. You mentioned that you canceled 2 property acquisitions and I think you said one land acquisition. I guess where would you transact today, I guess, in the current capital market environment, sort of what cap rate and IRR? And now that you've built this leverage capacity by paying off your bonds, how should we think about your willingness to take up leverage to repurchase shares?

Alexander Jessett

Yes. So it was interesting. We had those acquisitions under contract. And then obviously, we had the movement in interest rates. And we went back looking for price adjustments. And clearly, the sellers were not quite willing to capitulate to what we were looking for. The way we sort of think about it is, if you look at what's going on with cap rates right now, we think cap rates have probably expanded about 15 to 40 basis points and call that sort of like a 3% to 8% change in value. And so for us, we would like to see it closer to that sort of 40 basis points higher if we were going to buy something. That being said, remember, the reason why we were buying was entirely to maximize the tax efficiency.

And since, based upon our latest tax analysis, we actually don't have to buy anything else. And so based upon that, at this point, I think I'd rather buy shares at a clear discount than buy acquisitions. So that's sort of how I would rank it right now. And if you look at where we are on the leverage side, you're exactly right. Because we did not buy the additional assets, we've got debt-to-EBITDA at 4x. And we've always said that we would be comfortable within a 4 to 5x range. And we also said the reason we want your leverage to be low is because it gives you the opportunity to take advantage of what's out there. And clearly, we think there are opportunities on the share repurchase side, but we also think that we may get some opportunities on the acquisition side maybe next year at better pricing.

Richard Campo

Yes, I agree with that. I think the bottom line is, is that today, our shares are the best value that we see on the board in terms of investments. We acquired $743 million of shares so far. We did $50 million in the quarter. And to Alex's point, I mean, we positioned ourselves to be -- have low leverage, so we can pull the levers on and create value for shareholders that way, and we will.

Operator

Next question will come from Jamie Feldman with Wells Fargo.

James Feldman

I was hoping you could just get a little bit more granular on what changed in your outlook from the last update you gave in September? Like it sounds like concessions were a little higher than you thought. Can you talk more specifically about which markets are driving it? And then as you think about kind of October, November, did things change meaningfully to the upside? Or just how should we just read into that? Because you gave a September update and took it down pretty shortly thereafter?

Alexander Jessett

Yes, absolutely. So when we last gave an update was early September and clearly, September, as we said in the prepared remarks, came in softer than we had expected. A couple of things. Number one, traffic just wasn't there. Now by the way, we typically do see that on for seasonality, but it was better -- it was a greater decline in traffic than we had expected. And when we had the decline in traffic, obviously, you have to reduce your prices if you're trying to increase traffic. And so that's what we were doing. And clearly, what we saw was that concessions were, as we said, just incredibly sticky.

If you sort of look at our markets and you look at the communities in our markets that are offering concessions, they sort of range anywhere from 3 weeks up to 2 months. And if you think about it from the low end, sort of the 3-week side would be considered like West Palm Beach and the 2-month side would be Austin, Texas. But we are seeing those continue, and we didn't see really any drop-off, which is surprising because the third quarter, at least July and August, were so strong that we would have expected to see others start to dial back their concessions and they absolutely did not do it.

Now that being said, the answer to your second part is, we have seen signed new leases improve pretty dramatically in October as compared to September. And when we look at our October numbers and we compare them to October of last year, we're seeing really significant improvements. So I do -- we do expect a little bit of a bounce back in October, but it's unfortunately, if you hit your sort of the shoulder seasons and when you hit it, beginning in September and September is weaker than you expect, that has a run-through effect for the rest of the year.

Operator

The next question will come from Jana Galan with Bank of America.

Jana Galan

Maybe following up on that question. You also mentioned some of these kind of developer-led concessions getting a little bit more aggressive. Just curious if you could kind of call out a few markets. And then there was a little reprieve in rates. Just curious how quickly these adjust?

Laurie Baker

So well, as far as concessions in some of the markets that we talked about, if you look at where the concessions have definitely improved, we're seeing like the strongest market in Atlanta, Southeast Florida, Dallas and Houston. And so where those lower concessions are, we're obviously getting a little more pricing power, and we're having the ability to improve our occupancy.

Now if you look at kind of the weaker markets, we still are continuing to see Denver, Nashville as those that have concessions that have been persistent. Then you talk about -- I know we continue quarter-over-quarter to focus a little bit on Austin because that one in itself has showed our strongest occupancy in the third quarter as well as it was the best occupancy for all of Camden. So not only in just Texas but across Camden. And so when you look at kind of trough to peak, and that's because you've seen these high-supply markets with a lot of concessions, we had our worst quarter, if you look at kind of the lowest rent prices in the fourth quarter of '24 and new lease rates have improved 10.6% to the third quarter this year where our negative lease went from where we saw fourth quarter at negative 13.1% to only negative 2.5% in the third quarter.

So again, where those concessions have been very sticky and they're starting to improve, then we'll be able to maintain a little stronger pricing power. But Rainey Street, again, is one of those properties. It's led the company with finishing strong at 98.6% occupancy, even though you have concessions in the market. So it just depends on exactly the submarket, but continuing to see some strong concessions or a little more than we'd like to see in Raleigh-Durham. You had asked about a couple of those markets, Raleigh-Durham as well as Houston has seen some concessions in the market, but that's another market that we're seeing improvement.

Operator

Your next question will come from Haendel St. Juste with Mizuho Securities.

Michael Linden

This is Mike Donald on with Haendel at Mizuho. My question is, how are blends trending across your portfolio by region? And where are you seeing the most sequential improvement in terms of exit rate from 3Q '26? In your opening remarks, you did call out some improvement sequentially from September to October. So I just wanted some more detail there.

Laurie Baker

Yes. If you look at Dallas, for instance, third quarter versus the third quarter this year versus third quarter of last year, rents have improved across new leases, renewals and blended, both signed and effective. Additionally, new lease rate in third quarter, although slightly negative. We're talking like negative 0.1%, which is basically flat. That has improved 700 basis points from the lowest rate that we saw in 2024. So that's one of the markets we're seeing improvement. Southeast Florida, specifically, if you're looking at Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, those are a handful of the markets in Florida that are seeing improvements as well as concessions going down. And it's really suggesting the first signs of easing competition, improving conditions in those markets.

Operator

Your next question will come from Brad Heffern with RBC.

Brad Heffern

Yes. As a fellow Texan, I wanted to get your thoughts specifically on the election, just given you have roughly 1/4 of your NOI here. Do you think anything has changed substantially? I think on one hand, you have protections in the state constitution, the cities were all kind of blue leaning anyway, but then at the same time it is unprecedented when compared to how Texas has been run historically. So I appreciate any comments.

Richard Campo

Sure. Clearly, there was a big change in Texas with every statewide election going to a Democrat that hadn't happened in 30 or 40 years. So there are going to be changes, but the good news is that, generally speaking, Texas Democrats tend to be more middle-of-the-road Democrats than on the coast. And the other thing that I think is important, even though people talk about how Texas has turned blue, it's actually purple because you still have a divided government in the Texas Senate. Republicans still have a 19 to 12 margin in the Senate. And without any bipartisan -- without bipartisan support, nothing will get done in the legislative session this year.

So -- and I think a real positive thing. And I think this is actually -- I've been hearing this nationally and also big time in Texas. And that is that the governor, for example, and the Senator-elect, have both come out real fast after the election and said that they are both focusing on bipartisan support that they want to do better for workers in America, including in Texas. And so I think that is a real positive that's come out of this kind of shocker for Republicans is that is that -- the Democrats are, a, not hardcore progressives and b, they are -- they know they have to work across the aisle to get anything done. So I don't think that you're going to see any dramatic changes in how Texas has operated.

And I think that they understand that they will be held accountable for killing the golden goose if that happens. And so I'm pretty optimistic about how this massive shift to the left is actually what I think is going to be a massive shift to the center rather than a hard right versus hard left shift because in order for them to govern properly, they do have to have bipartisan support.

Alexander Jessett

And I think the other thing I would add to that is if you look at the actual results, the young folks swung really hard to the left. Young folks are typically our renters. And so it will be interesting to see if some of the more unpopular positions that we have in Texas, and popular for young people, if those getting dialed back may actually make Texas even more appealing for young folks to move here.

Operator

The next question will come from Ami Probandt with UBS.

Ami Probandt

What happened with the Denver and Nashville development projects that made them no longer viable? And at the same time, you acquired a land parcel, so how are you thinking about rebuilding the land bank and the attributes of that land parcel that you acquired that made it attractive?

Alexander Jessett

Yes. So we've been talking about the Denver and Nashville land sites on these calls for probably 2 years. And every time I was asked about it, I said the math didn't work. And the math didn't work at those points in time. And we were hoping that we'd find ways to make it so that they did work. And the reality is we just couldn't get there. And what was really interesting and sort of the driver, in particular for the Nashville asset, is that we bought an existing asset directly across the street from our land site. And that's the Gulch.

And so we bought an asset for $370,000 a door, plus or minus. And it would have been north of $600,000 a door to build it. And so we're in the capital allocation business. And so if we can find a way to deliver a better return for our shareholders by buying an asset and not building an asset, that's exactly what we're going to do. And so we've made the decision not to go forward on the Nashville site. Now by the way, that may change in a couple of years. We're certainly not going to sell the land right now because it's a horrible time to sell land. And so maybe we can build it in a couple of years, but it doesn't make sense for us right now.

And the same thing is true for Denver. That -- both of those land sites were bought at the absolute peak. And we look at capital allocation and where we can spend our money, and we think we can spend our money and deliver better returns doing other things, including the land sites that we did buy. Those land sites have much better returns. And by the way, they are less dense developments. And obviously, when you have less dense developments, oftentimes, you can build those for a lot less. And so that's why we think what we did is the right thing to do. And as I said, we'll continue to make sure that we make the appropriate capital allocation decisions for our shareholders.

Operator

The next question will come from Wes Golladay with Baird.

Wesley Golladay

Can you zoom in on the competitive landscape? Are the developers that are offering concessions starting to get to an occupancy point where they can dial back or you start to see fewer lease-ups? I can appreciate that we're in the shoulder season now. But are we getting to a point where you have a better setup for peak leasing season next year?

Alexander Jessett

Absolutely. Absolutely. If you look at peak supply, and I said this in the prepared remarks, peak supply is firmly in the rearview mirror. Absorption in our markets has absolutely led the nation. And so we are definitely getting to the point in time in which merchant builders, et cetera, should be able to start dialing back the concessions. I think a lot of it is -- as I said, you've got merchant builders who really have become reluctant operators, and the builders, they deal in concessions because most of the time they're trying to get something from 0% occupied to 95% occupied. And I do think that's the reason why concessions are remaining as sticky as they are.

And at the same token, you clearly see drop-offs in traffic in the end of the third quarter going into the fourth quarter. And when you have drop-offs in traffic, there's a couple of things you can do. Number one, you can say, listen, I understand that this is entirely seasonality and just sort of hold the course or you can try to get additional traffic in the door by offering concessions or reducing rents. And what we saw was just this really sticky sort of market strategy of continuing to offer concessions, mainly driven by the merchant builders.

Operator

Your next question will come from Steve Sakwa with Evercore ISI.

Steve Sakwa

You guys have done a really good job on expense containment this year. As we kind of look to next year, I guess what are the puts and takes that we should be thinking about? Any kind of one-timers realizing insurance may come down again and remain kind of on the softer side? But if we think about taxes and kind of R&M and some of the bigger drivers of expense growth next year.

Alexander Jessett

So while we're not going to give 2027 guidance, what I can say, and I've said before, there are no surprises in 2026 that would lead to a benefit or detriment to what would be a normalized expense growth year next year. So as we get into January, we'll have a better idea of what our expense growth will be, and we'll provide that on our earnings call then. But let's pray for continued low insurance claims worldwide because obviously, I've seen significant reductions in insurance. We saw it this year. We saw it last year. And by the way, this has been light again. And so if that continues through our May renewal, then that's going to be good news for us. And obviously, we'll continue to be aggressive on the property tax side, and that's where we seem to see the biggest benefits.

Operator

The next question will come from Rich Hightower with Barclays.

Richard Hightower

This is a question about '27, but not guidance per se, but you've still got as I look at sort of the rank stack of revenue performance across your market, just obviously pretty wide dispersion in '26 for all the reasons that you've talked about. But do you think that dispersion from top to bottom narrows next year, do you think that we're going to see a similar dynamic that we're kind of seeing right now?

Alexander Jessett

Yes. No, I would absolutely expect it to narrow. And when you look at the results that we have, you can -- that's almost perfectly correlated to when peak supply happened in each of those markets. So since peak supply is, as I said, firmly in the rearview mirror, I would expect to see the results be a lot narrower. You also have to remember that, and I'll pick on Denver for a minute. So Denver, which is showing as our worst revenue growth market, down 5% on a quarter-over-quarter basis, remember that, that is almost entirely based upon the legislative actions in Denver that didn't enable us to rebill those common area utilities. And we talked about that in the beginning of the year, and we said that, that was basically like $1.8 million of a detriment to us, entirely in Denver in 2026.

And so if you strip that out, you would see that Denver is -- it looks a lot closer to our other markets. And by the same token, if you look at Nashville, Nashville, one of the other markets that's sort of underperforming, we only have 2 communities there, and one of them is going through a fairly significant capital project that is absolutely disruptive. And so that will be finished as well. So expect to see a much more narrow clustering amongst our markets.

Operator

The next question will come from Adam Kramer with Morgan Stanley.

Adam Kramer

I guess just given some of the updated same-store revenue guide and where blended spreads are right now, what would be the sort of earn-in that you guys are expecting for 2027? And then any, I guess, puts and takes to that number as just as you think about sort of what can play out here for the next couple of months?

Alexander Jessett

Once again, we're not going to give 2027 guidance, but I will say that we do expect our earn-in for 2027 based on our current projections, flat as we came into 2026. So positive momentum there from a blended standpoint for the fourth quarter. As Laurie said, we're sending out December and January renewals of 4.5%. So we think renewals will hang in the mid-3% range in the fourth quarter with slight seasonal downtick in new leases. So our blends will be slightly positive, plus or minus in the fourth quarter of this year.

But if you compare this to the fourth quarter of last year, we were absolutely not sending out renewals in the fourth quarter of last year, up 4.5%. So as long as we can sign those, that absolutely sets us up for a stronger first quarter of '27 than we saw in '26.

Operator

Next question will come from Austin Wurschmidt with Key Capital Markets.

Austin Wurschmidt

So typically, you would think about building occupancy this time of the year out of the spring leasing season. And Alex, I think you're the one that hit on some of the merchant developers offering outsized concessions today. But between your revenue management systems or even changes to your manual inputs, I guess how much are you willing to let occupancy slide before you would pull back on rate?

Laurie Baker

Well, I would kind of suggest that we saw a softer finish in September. And that reflected our decision to protect leasing velocity and occupancy as we saw traffic slowing at the end of our peak leasing season. Earlier in the quarter, the team, we had deliberately reduced pricing after we saw some of that weakening, and we ended up improving our closing ratio significantly. So we'll continue to evaluate each market, each property so that we can make very selective pricing decisions as it relates to what would move the market.

We're also focusing a lot on, I think Alex mentioned, as you're trying to drive traffic to these properties, you have to advertise in a way that gets people to show up, and we're hearing that in many of our markets where there are a lot of concessions, renters and prospective renters are taking anywhere -- they're looking at anywhere from 7 to 10 properties before they make a decision, and they're making their decisions based on price, all things being equal. So we're going to continue to evaluate how do we gain pricing power. And you do that by improving your occupancy, and where we can improve occupancy and balance those 2, we'll continue to focus on what makes the right sense from a pricing decision.

Alexander Jessett

And the thing about multifamily, you have to remember that we've got perfect price elasticity, meaning we can always get to 100% occupancy or close to it, we just have to drop rents. And so if you look at what we're doing, we're going to have the fourth quarter occupancy is going to be in the low 95s, and that compares to the mid-95s in the third quarter. So that's pretty much about as far as we're willing to let it drop from a third to fourth quarter comparisons.

Operator

Next question will come from Julien Blouin with Goldman Sachs.

Julien Blouin

I was just wondering what you're expecting in terms of market rent growth across your portfolio next year? And I guess, bigger picture, I was wondering, as you prepare your budgets and guidances for '27, do you anticipate changing the approach at all as it sort of relates to blends and same-store revenue guide? Is there a temptation to perhaps guide more conservatively relative to where sort of adviser forecasts spit out rent growth for '27?

Alexander Jessett

Yes. So we're not giving 2027 guidance. Right now, we're in the middle of our budget process, and going through that discovery period of everything that you mentioned there. So when we get to our fourth quarter '26 earnings call, we'll give guidance, we'll be able to update everyone on that. But when you think about -- renewals are always the best thing we can do. And so what we're going to do is we're going to make sure that we don't get too hot on the renewal side because we want to keep those residents. And then we'll let the new leases sort of be what fills in the blanks.

The other thing, when you ask about being more conservative, listen, every -- we hate bringing our numbers down. That is not something any of us ever want to do. But when we come out at the beginning of every single year, what we give you guys is our budgets based upon the economists we use, based upon the analysis that we put in place, we give you guys our budgets. We don't go through and say, okay, our budgets are x, and so we're going to give you guidance of x minus y, as that has never been our approach.

Operator

Next question will come from Alex Kim with Zelman & Associates.

Alex Kim

On last quarter's call, you talked to how you expected blended rent growth to average roughly 1% to slightly better in second half '26. In third quarter, blends came in at 1%. So that was consistent with that outlook. Are you still expecting roughly 1% blended rent growth in the fourth quarter here? How do you reconcile that leasing performance a bit with the 50 basis point reduction in the full year same-store revenue growth guidance?

Alexander Jessett

So you're correct, we came in at 1% on blended rents in third quarter, which is relatively in line with our expectations. However, for the fourth quarter, as part of the guidance bring-down, we are expecting a lower new lease trade-out than we originally anticipated. So we expect those blends to be slightly positive in the fourth quarter, but not to that 1% level.

Operator

Next question is a follow-up from Ami Probandt with UBS.

Ami Probandt

Maybe a question related to the previous question on the Texas election outcome. Do you expect any changes in Florida property taxes following the Amendment 3 passing? And if so, do you think that this is a 2027 impact? Or is it likely more intermediate or longer term?

Alexander Jessett

So as you're referring to Amendment 3 that requires 60% of the vote to pass, I believe it got 62%. We've been keeping an eye on that because what that's going to do is lower the homestead exemption from a staggered perspective and put a significant hole in the property tax revenues from single-family homeowners. So the question becomes where is that going to come from? We are working closely with the Florida Apartment Association and have a relationship with the Governor-elect, Byron Donalds, and we'll be having to have discussions to educate them on what impact that could possibly have to rent affordability in the state, but nothing has been determined on where -- what taxes are going to happen on the commercial real estate side.

Operator

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Alex Jessett for any closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Alexander Jessett

Thank you, everybody, for joining us this morning, and we will see you guys in Atlanta. Take care.

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.