Michael L. Manelis
Chief Operating Officer & Executive Vice President at Equity Residential
Thanks, Mark. We are pleased to report that we are seeing pricing power ahead of our expectations. Strong demand is being driven by the desire of affluent residents to live in our well-located properties both urban and suburban. We have talked in previous calls about the recovery in our business being connected more to the lifestyle that our residents crave and less to how many days workers are expected to be in the office and that pattern continues. I've visited several of our markets over the last few months and I'm excited by the vibrancy that I am seeing. We reported 96.4% occupancy for the quarter, which is 140 basis points higher than the first quarter of 2021 and in line with our expectations.
First-quarter reported turnover of 8.7%, was over 100 basis points lower than the first quarter of 2021 and represents the lowest reported turnover in the history of our company. This trend reaffirms the desirability of our product as our existing residents signed renewals at record levels with increases that averaged 11.9% in the first quarter. This trend continues into the second quarter with preliminary April renewal increases averaging 12.5% with approximately 60% of our residents renewing. We are limiting rate negotiations, given the strength and demand of new residents willing to pay full price to live in our communities. As we begin our primary leasing season. We feel really go about our pricing position, which includes the near elimination of concession usage across the portfolio, outside of Seattle and is translating into robust new lease change performance with April on track to deliver just over 17.5% new lease growth after posting over 15% in the first quarter.
Now let me give you some color on the markets beginning with Boston. Boston is following normal seasonal patterns with improving demand and pricing heading towards the spring. We're almost 97% occupied and the market is benefiting from the big college campuses being open and the return of international students and workers, and the continued strong demand drivers from the lab and life sciences, financial firms, healthcare, and education. Competition from new supply will be modest and market performance should be strong. New York continues to thrive and was our best performing market in the first quarter with same-store residential revenue growth of 13.6%.
We're 96.9% occupied and continue to expect this market to be our best performer in 2022. Demand is robust, we're renewing about 60% of our residents, which is healthy, but 5% lower than at the beginning of the year. This is primarily due to deal seekers choosing to move out versus paying the higher current price, but it is not a concern since we are easily able to attract new residents at these higher rates. We still expect to feel some pressure from new supply in the Jersey Waterfront in Brooklyn later this year. Washington DC is performing as expected with Residential same-store revenue growth of 3% in the first quarter. This market was our best performing East Coast market in 2021 and as I mentioned in the past has the leased ground to make up. As is often the case in D.C new supply is likely to pressure rate growth in the market that the Metro area continues to post record absorption. Strong employment across job sectors in the market is driving this demand and we are 96.7% occupied. We are renewing about 60% of our residents and feel good about our positioning for the spring leasing season.
Before I talk about our West Coast markets. Let me give you a little color on our expansion markets. Denver continues to demonstrate very strong demand, we're almost 98% occupied and delivered same-store revenue growth of almost 13% in the first quarter. Despite turnover being on the higher end. We are seeing very good pricing power and healthy occupancy. In Atlanta, our acquisitions are performing ahead of their performance as the market continues to produce strong rent growth. Dallas and Austin continue to enjoy robust demand driven by very good in-migration and job growth in these markets. Out of the West Coast. Seattle continues to be slow to recover compared to the other markets, particularly in the downtown submarket. The good news is that the city's new Mayor is focused on the quality of life issues, which we expect will have a positive impact. Also, job postings in the market are at the highest level we have seen with Amazon leading the pack with over 19,000 positions posted with 16,000 of them being in the city of Seattle, which is a good sign for future apartment demand. Market occupancy in Seattle currently sits just above 95% which remained behind our expectations and turnover albeit within historical norms, was the highest of all of our markets.
The suburban portfolio is outperforming the city with the Bellevue, Redmond submarkets seeing immediate demand improvement in March after Microsoft's return to the office announcement. Year-to-date pricing remains flat in the downtown submarket with approximately 60% of new applications receiving a concession, at just over a month and occupancy in this submarket is at 93%. Overall, we expect continued strength in the suburban portfolio and remain optimistic that pricing power and occupancy will improve in the downtown submarket as we are just now beginning to see signs of increasing demand as the quality of life issues continue to slowly improve.
San Francisco is also lag the recovery, but at the moment feels on stronger footing than Seattle. We are very encouraged by the recent announcements from Mayor Breed and the local large employers about their commitment to bringing office workers back to the city, which should help address quality of life issues downtown. There has been consistently good demand in early signs of improved pricing power that the market lacked in 2021. We're almost 97% occupied and resident retention has improved from a year ago. Google, which has asked workers to return this month made a recent announcement that it is investing more than $3.5 billion in California, including a big chunk in the Bay Area with significant projects in Mountain View, Sunnyvale, and downtown San Jose. All areas where we have a significant number of communities. The pricing trend has increased almost 6.5% since the beginning of the year, which is better than the normal seasonal expectation, which would be in the 4% to 5% range. While this market pricing remains below pre-pandemic levels. The good news is that initial indicators point to continued strong recovery of the market.
Now let me move to Southern California. Three markets that have performed exceptionally well but for elevated delinquency. First, Orange County, and San Diego continue to show remarkable performance with high occupancy and strong retention supporting very good new lease rents. Home prices in these markets are out of reach for many of our residents, which is evident by the significant decline to move-outs siding this region during the quarter. We expect to see continued record high retention likely impacted by the local regulations limiting our allowable increases, increasing home prices, and very limited competitive new supply. The result of these factors should allow us to maintain elevated pricing power throughout the year in these markets.
Next, Los Angeles. Even with elevated delinquency, LA continues to be a star performer. The entertainment content creation business is really thriving and driving demand. Occupancy is almost 97% and pricing power is strong and better than expected. The urban market's performance is now on par with the suburban portfolio a scenario, which we have not seen since the onset of the pandemic. The percent of residents renewing is the highest we have seen likely due to the impact of the local regulations limiting our allowable renewal increases and we expect to continue to renew between 60% and 70% of our residents.
Now that rent relief coverage is no longer available for April 2022 rents. We have seen an early uptick in payment activity, but remain cautious. I was in Southern California two weeks ago, and I'm very encouraged by what I saw. Our on-site teams continue to actively engage our non-paying residents and are just now beginning to see a few positive signs, either through payments being made or in some cases residents deciding to move out and give us their apartments. Overall, the strength and demand, and quality of our portfolio clearly points to above-average performance for our Southern California markets as the delinquency issue slowly clears. On the innovation front, we finished deploying our centralized renewal process in the first quarter and are now focused on centralizing our application process. As we mentioned last quarter, the foundation of our operating platform is in place and we are focused on further process automation and multi-site coverage that will create additional efficiencies while continuing to meet the ever-changing needs of our customers and provide them a seamless digital customer experience.
Let me thank the entire Equity Residential team for their continued dedication and hard work. These are exciting times for our industry in the overall operations of our company. Not only are we on track to have a very strong year of financial performance, but we are also advancing our platform. Resident expectations are constantly evolving and our teams continue to focus on leveraging technology to meet those needs and drive operational excellence.
Thank you. I will now turn the call over to the operator to begin the Q&A session.
