Michael Lacy
Senior Vice President of Property Operations at UDR
Thank you, Tom. To begin, strong same-store result supported fourth quarter FFOA per share at the high-end of our previously provided guidance range. Sequential same-store cash revenue grew 3% in the fourth quarter, defying the traditional seasonal slowdown. Key components of our 9% and 11.4% year-over-year same-store cash revenue and NOI growth included. Effective blended lease rate growth of 11.7%, which accelerated sequentially by 350 basis points, first, the third quarter and supported by minimal concessions granted. Weighted average occupancy of 97.1%, 100 basis points higher than a year ago. And annualized turnover of approximately 35%, which declined by more than 650 basis points versus a year ago and was approximately 500 basis points below our historical fourth quarter turnover rate. These favorable trends have continued into 2022.
Demand for multifamily housing remains unseasonably strong. January occupancy ticked up to 97.4% and blended rate growth continued to accelerate to over 13%, as we sustained rate growth to strengthen our 2022 and 2023 rent roll. With market rents already increasing approximately 2% to start 2022. Market rents continued to demonstrate strength and our loss to leases held steady at 11%. We are capturing this embedded upside by driving rental rate higher and utilizing platform initiatives unique to UDR. Expanding on our industry-leading platform, we have now fully rolled out Version 1.0 of our Next-Gen Operating Platform across all our markets and have turned our attention to the next phase, which we call innovation 2.0. This builds upon our unique self-service model. There has permanently reduced headcount at our communities by 40% on average, driven our controllable operating margin 250 basis points above peers at the same average rent level, increased our residents action score by 24% since 2018 and generated nearly $20 million of incremental NOI on our legacy communities.
We view innovation 2.0 as the next evolutionary step that will further expand our controllable margin versus public and private peers, as we continue to differentiate ourselves within the industry. Arriving at the intersection of data and decisions, we are leveraging data to better understand resident and prospect decisions, making to improve revenue experience while driving rents, retention, vacant days, other income and controllable expenses. With a higher focus on revenue growth and Platform 1.0, we have identified five big picture topics that have a max potential to deliver more than $100 million of incremental run rate NOI. This includes pricing engine optimization that turn shoppers into buyers, reduces vacant days, leveraging residents and prospects data to improve their experience, increase our share of resident wallet and additional controllable expense reductions.
We have already identified near-term operating initiatives among these categories that should deliver at least $20 million of incremental run rate NOI over the next 24 months. Our platform also broadens our acquisition and capital allocation opportunities, as we can scale our operations, drive more expense control and introduce unique other income opportunities. UDR has been the most active acquirer in our peer group over the last 3 years, and we have a demonstrated ability to consistently drive outsized growth at these new communities by implementing our platform and other unique value creation initiatives. Thus far, we have expanded the weighted average yield on our nearly $1 billion of third-party acquisitions from 2019 by 70 basis points to 5.5% and above 6% on a mark-to-market basis once loss to leases captured. This 33% yield improvement is well in excess of market growth alone.
Harry, Andrew, and our transaction team have done an excellent job finding deal next door acquisitions in desirable markets where we can create value through our platform capabilities. And we expect similar yield expansion from our $1.8 billion of late 2020 and full-year 2021 acquisitions due to our repeatable competitive advantages. Already these acquired communities are outperforming year one underwriting by an average of 20 basis points and have 90 basis points of incremental upside on a mark-to-market basis based on current loss to lease. Our yield on these acquisitions would be in the mid 5% range upon capturing this upside.
Turning to 2022 guidance, we expect to achieve 8.5% same-store revenue growth and 11% same-store NOI growth at our midpoint on a straight-line basis. To provide some color on the drivers of this growth, first, we expect effective blended rate growth of approximately 6.5% to 7.5% with blended rate growth in the first half of 2022 in the 10% to 11% range. Second, we expect occupancy to remain relatively high in average 97.2% to 97.4% or a 10 to 30 basis point improvement or full-year 2021 results. But to be clear, our focus is on driving rents and we expect to maximize revenue by keeping occupancy around the current level. And third, we expect controllable operating expense growth to be limited to the 2% to 3% range or 50 basis points better than our overall same-store expense growth. While the above assumptions imply a second half go down and blended rate growth, closer to historical norms, it is important to know that we are not seeing any signs today that would point to a slowdown of that magnitude.
Demand, traffic and wage growth remain strong. Relative affordability is in our favor and rents continue to move higher. The high-end of the range would be achieved by a continuation of current demand trends and blended rate growth remaining higher than typical seasonal rates. Conversely, the low-end of our range reflects the continued challenges coming from; one, regulatory restrictions on renewal rate growth and fees; two, the approximately 500 long-term delinquent residents, half of which have been non-responsive to our efforts and seeking government assistance; three, be elongated or prohibited eviction process in roughly 65% of our markets with a 2-month to 6-month process for courts to process evictions where they are allowed; and four, cycling more difficult comps in the back half of 2022.
Therefore, our full-year guidance embed some initial conservatives on the second half of 2022. However, we will have visibility on 65% to 70% of our full-year rent roll by the end of April and plan to reassess our guidance assumptions as we enter the traditional peak leasing period. We are convicted in our upcoming results and our pricing of our apartment homes to both capture the current rent opportunity and build a strong rent roll that should support attractive same-store growth in 2023 as well.
Moving on, we see broad-based pricing strength across our portfolio. Concessions remain almost non-existent and we are only offering 1 to 2 weeks on average in select sub-markets within San Francisco in Washington DC. At the portfolio level, gross potential rents are up 5% to 6% on average versus pre-COVID levels. Incomes are up a similar amount, so rent to income ratios have remained stable in the low 20% range. This support strong pricing power given the trajectory of wage inflation, relative affordability among housing options and our current loss to lease of 11% across our markets and product types, excluding the approximately 10% of NOI, that remain subject to regulatory restrictions and limits on renewal increases. We have seen a convergence and effective growth rates among our Urban and Suburban, Sunbelt and Coastal, and A and B-quality communities. We expect this trend to continue as the year progresses.
Finally, we remain successful in accessing rental assistance programs which benefit our collections. During 2021 we source more than $28 million in assistance for residents in need. With $10 million of this coming. During the fourth quarter in a similar pace continuing to January. We have another $13 million of application and process with the majority related to residents and formar residents in California and the State of Washington. We continue to have only a small segment of less than 1% of our residents that are long-term delinquent. But many of the markets in which we operate faced delays or restrictions in the eviction process.
Nevertheless, we are leveraging the work of our dedicated governmental affairs team to mitigate the risks associated with the regulatory backdrop and generate positive outcomes for residents, the Company and our stakeholders. In closing, 2022 has started even stronger than 2021 finished. We continue to innovate and enhance our industry-leading operating platform. And I thank all of my colleagues for their dedication to setting the bar higher on how we do business. And now I will turn over the call to Joe.
