FORM 10-K

ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d)
OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2002

Commission file number 1-12672

AVALONBAY COMMUNITIES, INC.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

2900 Eisenhower Avenue, Suite 300
Alexandria, Virginia 22314
(Address of principal executive office, including zip code)

(703) 329-6300
(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

__________________
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding twelve (12) months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past ninety (90) days.

Yes x      No o

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K. o

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an accelerated filer (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act).

Yes x      No o

The aggregate market value of the Registrant’s Common Stock, par value $.01 per share, held by nonaffiliates of the Registrant, as of June 28, 2002 was $3,239,807,363.

The number of shares of the Registrant’s Common Stock, par value $.01 per share, outstanding as of February 1, 2003 was 68,149,232.

Documents Incorporated by Reference

Portions of AvalonBay Communities, Inc.’s Proxy Statement for the 2003 annual meeting of stockholders, a definitive copy of which will be filed with the SEC within 120 days after the year end of the year covered by this Form 10-K, are incorporated by reference herein as portions of Part III of this Form 10-K.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I

This Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Our actual results could differ materially from those set forth in each forward-looking statement. Certain factors that might cause such a difference are discussed in this report, including in the section entitled “Forward-Looking Statements” on page 37 of this Form 10-K.

ITEM 1. BUSINESS

General

AvalonBay Communities, Inc. is a Maryland corporation that has elected to be treated as a real estate investment trust, or REIT, for federal income tax purposes. We focus on the ownership and operation of upscale apartment communities (which generally command among the highest rents in their submarkets) in high barrier-to-entry markets of the United States. This is because we believe that, long term, the limited new supply of upscale apartment homes and lower housing affordability in these markets will result in larger increases in cash flows relative to other markets over an entire business cycle. These barriers-to-entry generally include a difficult and lengthy entitlement process with local jurisdictions and dense urban or suburban areas where zoned and entitled land (“in-fill locations”) is in limited supply. Our markets are located in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Pacific Northwest, and Northern and Southern California regions of the United States. We believe that we have penetrated substantially all of the high barrier-to-entry markets of the country.

At February 1, 2003, we owned or held a direct or indirect ownership interest in 137 operating apartment communities containing 40,179 apartment homes in eleven states and the District of Columbia, of which two communities containing 1,089 apartment homes were under reconstruction. In addition, we owned or held a direct or indirect ownership interest in 12 communities under construction that are expected to contain an aggregate of 3,429 apartment homes when completed. We also owned a direct or indirect ownership interest in rights to develop an additional 38 communities that, if developed in the manner expected, will contain an estimated 9,950 apartment homes. We generally obtain ownership in an apartment community by developing a new community on vacant land or by acquiring and either repositioning or redeveloping an existing community. In selecting sites for development, redevelopment or acquisition, we favor locations that are near expanding employment centers and convenient to recreation areas, entertainment, shopping and dining.

Our real estate investments consist of Established Communities, Other Stabilized Communities, Development Communities and Redevelopment Communities. A description of these segments and other related information can be found in Note 9, “Segment Reporting,” of the Consolidated Financial Statements set forth in Item 8 of this report.

Our principal operating objectives are to develop, own and operate, in our selected markets, high-quality, upscale communities that contain features and amenities desired by prospective residents, and to provide our residents with efficient and effective service. Our principal financial goals are to successfully implement those operating objectives in a cost effective manner and thereby increase long-term stockholder value by increasing operating cash flow and Funds from Operations (as defined by the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts). For a description of the meaning of Funds from Operations and its use and limitation as an operating measure, see the discussion titled “Funds from Operations” in Item 7 of this report. Our strategies to achieve these objectives and goals include:

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We believe that we can generally implement these strategies best by developing, redeveloping, acquiring and managing upscale assets in high barrier-to-entry markets while maintaining the financial discipline to ensure balance sheet flexibility.

Development Strategy. We carefully select land for development and follow established procedures that we believe minimize both the cost and the risks of development. As one of the largest developers of multifamily apartment communities in high barrier-to-entry markets of the United States, we identify development opportunities through local market presence and access to local market information achieved through our regional offices. In addition to our principal executive offices in Alexandria, Virginia, we also maintain regional offices and administrative or specialty offices in or near the following cities:

After selecting a target site, we usually negotiate for the right to acquire the site either through an option or a long-term conditional contract. Options and long-term conditional contracts generally enable us to acquire the target site shortly before the start of construction, which reduces development-related risks as well as preserves capital. After we acquire land, we generally shift our focus to construction. Except for certain mid-rise and high-rise apartment communities where we may elect to use third-party general contractors or construction managers, we act as our own general contractor and construction manager. We believe this enables us to achieve higher construction quality, greater control over construction schedules and significant cost savings. Our development, property management and construction teams monitor construction progress to ensure high-quality workmanship and a smooth and timely transition into the leasing and operational phase.

Redevelopment Strategy. When we undertake the redevelopment of a community, our goal is to generally renovate and/or rebuild an existing community so that our total investment is significantly below replacement cost and the community is the highest quality apartment community or best rental value for an upscale apartment community in its local area. We have established procedures to minimize both the cost and risks of redevelopment. Our redevelopment teams, which include key redevelopment, construction and property management personnel, monitor redevelopment progress. We believe we achieve significant cost savings by acting as our own general contractor. More importantly, this helps to ensure high-quality design and workmanship and a smooth and timely transition into the lease-up and restabilization phase.

Disposition Strategy. To optimize our concentration of communities in selected high barrier-to-entry markets, we sell assets that do not meet our long-term investment criteria when market conditions are favorable and redeploy the proceeds from those sales to develop and redevelop communities under construction or reconstruction. This disposition strategy acts as a source of capital because we are able to redeploy the net proceeds from our dispositions in lieu of raising that amount of capital externally by issuing debt or equity securities. When we decide to sell a community, we generally solicit competing bids from unrelated parties for these individual assets and consider the sales price and tax ramifications of each proposal. In connection with this disposition strategy, we have disposed of one community since January 1, 2002. The net proceeds from the sale of this community were approximately $78,454,000. We expect to increase our disposition activity during 2003 in response to current and anticipated real estate and capital markets conditions. However, we cannot assure you that assets can be sold on terms that we consider satisfactory, or at all, or that market conditions will continue to make the sale of assets an appealing strategy.

Acquisition Strategy. Our core competencies in development and redevelopment discussed above allow us to be selective in the acquisitions we target. Between January 1, 2002 and February 1, 2003, we acquired two

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communities containing 706 apartment homes, one of which was acquired in connection with a forward purchase contract agreed to in 1997. The acquisition of these communities was designed to achieve rapid penetration into markets that are generally supply constrained and in which we desired an increased presence.

Property Management Strategy. We intend to increase operating income through innovative, proactive property management that will result in higher revenue from communities and controlled operating expenses.

Our principal strategies to maximize revenue include:

Controlling operating expenses is another way in which we intend to increase earnings growth. Growth in our portfolio and the resulting increase in revenue allows for fixed operating costs to be spread over a larger volume of revenue, thereby increasing operating margins. We aggressively pursue real estate tax appeals and control operating expenses as follows:

On-site property management teams receive bonuses based largely upon the net operating income produced at their respective communities. We are also pursuing ancillary services which could provide additional revenue sources.

Technology Strategy. We believe that an innovative management information system infrastructure is an important element in managing our future growth. This is because timely and accurate collection of financial and resident profile data will enable us to maximize revenue through careful leasing decisions and financial management.

We currently have investments in three technology companies. These investments were made with the belief that they would promote the development and application of technology and services which would improve the operating performance of our real estate holdings. Historically, our most significant technology investment has been Realeum, Inc., (“Realeum”), an entity engaged in the development and deployment of an on-site property management and leasing automation system that enables management to capture, review and analyze data to a greater extent than is possible using existing commercial software. To help monitor this investment, Thomas J. Sargeant, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, is a director of Realeum. After consideration of our share of Realeum’s losses, the carrying value of our investment in Realeum has been reduced to zero as of December 31, 2002. We are also a member of Constellation Real Technologies LLC, (“Constellation”), an entity formed by a number of real estate investment trusts and real estate operating companies for the purpose of investing in multi-sector real estate technology opportunities. Our original commitment to Constellation was $4,000,000 but, as a result of an agreement among the members reducing the commitment due from each member, our commitment is currently $2,600,000, of which we have contributed $959,000 to date. The remaining unfunded commitment of $1,641,000 is expected to be funded over the next five years. Our third investment is in Rent.com, an internet-based rental housing information provider. The aggregate carrying value of our technology investments at February 1, 2003 was $1,404,000.

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Financing Strategy. We have consistently maintained, and intend to continue to maintain, a conservative capital structure. At December 31, 2002, our debt-to-total market capitalization was 46.1%, and our permanent long-term floating rate debt, not including borrowings under the unsecured credit facility, was only 2.0% of total market capitalization. Market capitalization reflects the aggregate of the market value of common stock, the liquidation preference of preferred stock and the principal amount of debt.

Before planned construction or reconstruction activity begins, we intend to arrange adequate capital sources to complete such undertakings, although we cannot assure you that we will be able to obtain such financing. During 2002, substantially all of our construction and reconstruction activities were funded by the issuance of unsecured debt securities, net proceeds from asset sales and retained operating cash. In the event that financing cannot be obtained, we may have to abandon planned development activities, write-off associated pursuit costs and/or forego reconstruction activity. In such instances, we will not realize the increased revenues and earnings that we expected from such pursuits.

We estimate that a portion of our short-term liquidity needs will be met from retained operating cash and borrowings under our $500,000,000 variable rate unsecured credit facility. At February 28, 2003, $155,470,000 was outstanding, $15,529,000 was used to provide letters of credit and $329,001,000 was available for borrowing under the unsecured credit facility.

If required to meet the balance of our liquidity needs, we will attempt to arrange additional capacity under our existing unsecured credit facility, sell additional existing communities or land and/or issue additional debt or equity securities. While we believe we have the financial position to expand our short-term credit capacity and access the capital markets as needed, we cannot assure you that we will be successful in completing these arrangements, sales or offerings. The failure to complete these transactions on a cost-effective basis or at all could have a material adverse impact on our operating results and financial condition, including the abandonment of development pursuits.

Inflation and Deflation

Substantially all of our leases are for a term of one year or less, which may enable us to realize increased rents upon renewal of existing leases or the beginning of new leases. Such short-term leases generally minimize the risk to us of the adverse effects of inflation, although as a general rule these leases permit residents to leave at the end of the lease term without penalty and therefore expose us to the effect of a decline in market rent. Our current policy is generally to allow residents to terminate leases upon an agreed advance written notice and a lease termination payment, as provided for in the resident’s lease. Short-term leases combined with relatively consistent demand have allowed rents, and therefore cash flow from the portfolio, to provide an attractive inflation hedge. However, in a deflationary rent environment as is currently being experienced, we are exposed to declining rents more quickly under these shorter-term leases.

Tax Matters

We filed an election with our initial federal income tax return to be taxed as a REIT under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, and intend to maintain our qualification as a REIT in the future. As a qualified REIT, with limited exceptions, we will not be taxed under federal and certain state income tax laws at the corporate level on our net income to the extent net income is distributed to our stockholders. We expect to make sufficient distributions to avoid income tax at the corporate level.

Environmental and Related Matters

Under various federal, state and local environmental laws, regulations and ordinances, a current or previous owner or operator of real estate may be required, regardless of knowledge or responsibility, to investigate and remediate the effects of hazardous or toxic substances or petroleum product releases at the property and may be held liable to a governmental entity or to third parties for property damage and for investigation and remediation costs incurred by these parties as a result of the contamination. These damages and costs may be substantial. The presence of such substances, or the failure to properly remediate the contamination, may adversely affect the owner’s ability to

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borrow against, sell or rent the affected property. In addition, some environmental laws create a lien on the contaminated site in favor of the government for damages and costs it incurs as a result of the contamination.

Certain federal, state and local laws, regulations and ordinances govern the removal, encapsulation or disturbance of asbestos containing materials (“ACMs”) when such materials are in poor condition or in the event of reconstruction, remodeling, renovation, or demolition of a building. These laws may impose liability for release of ACMs and may provide for third parties to seek recovery from owners or operators of real properties for personal injury associated with exposure to ACMs. We are not aware that any ACMs were used in the construction of the communities we developed. ACMs were, however, used in the construction of several of the communities that we acquired. We have implemented an operations and maintenance program for each of the communities at which ACMs have been detected. We do not anticipate that we will incur any material liabilities as a result of the presence of ACMs at our communities.

We are aware that some of our communities have lead paint and have implemented an operations and maintenance program at each of those communities. We do not anticipate that we will incur any material liabilities as a result of the presence of lead paint at our communities.

All of our stabilized operating communities, and all of the communities that we are currently developing or redeveloping, have been subjected to at least a Phase I or similar environmental assessment, which generally does not involve invasive techniques such as soil or ground water sampling. These assessments, together with subsurface assessments conducted on some properties, have not revealed, and we are not otherwise aware of, any environmental conditions that we believe would have a material adverse effect on our business, assets, financial condition or results of operations. In connection with our ownership, operation and development of communities, from time to time we undertake remedial action in response to the presence of subsurface or other contaminants. In some cases, an indemnity exists upon which we may be able to rely if environmental liability arises from the contamination. There can be no assurance, however, that all necessary remediation actions have been or will be undertaken at our properties or that we will be indemnified, in full or at all, in the event that environmental liability arises.

Mold growth may occur when excessive moisture accumulates in buildings or on building materials, particularly if the moisture problem remains undiscovered or is not addressed over a period of time. Although the occurrence of mold at multifamily and other structures, and the need to remediate such mold, is not a new phenomenon, there has been increased awareness in recent years that certain molds may in some instances lead to adverse health effects, including allergic or other reactions. To help limit mold growth, we educate residents about the importance of adequate ventilation and request or require that they notify us when they see mold or excessive moisture. We have established procedures for promptly addressing and remediating mold or excessive moisture from apartment homes when we become aware of its presence regardless of whether we or the resident believe a health risk is presented. However, we cannot assure that mold or excessive moisture will be detected and remediated in a timely manner. If a significant mold problem arises at one of our communities, we could be required to undertake a costly remediation program to contain or remove the mold from the affected community and could be exposed to other liabilities.

Additionally, we have occasionally been involved in developing, managing, leasing and operating various properties for third parties. Consequently, we may be considered to have been an operator of such properties and, therefore, potentially liable for removal or remediation costs or other potential costs which could relate to hazardous or toxic substances. We are not aware of any material environmental liabilities with respect to properties managed or developed by us or our predecessors for such third parties.

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We cannot assure you that:

Other Information

Our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 are available free of charge in the “Investor Relations” section of our website (www.avalonbay.com) as soon as reasonably practicable after the reports are filed with or furnished to the SEC.

We were incorporated under the laws of the State of California in 1978. In 1995, we reincorporated in the State of Maryland and have been focused on the ownership and operation of apartment communities since that time. As of December 31, 2002, we had 1,775 employees.

ITEM 2. COMMUNITIES

Our real estate investments consist of current operating apartment communities, communities in various stages of development, and land or land options held for development. The following is a description of each category:

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As of December 31, 2002, our communities were classified as follows:

Our holdings under each of the above categories are discussed on the following pages.

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Current Communities

The Current Communities are primarily garden-style apartment communities consisting of two and three-story buildings in landscaped settings. The Current Communities, as of February 1, 2003, include 106 garden-style, 17 high-rise and 14 mid-rise apartment communities. The Current Communities offer many attractive amenities including some or all of the following:

Other features at various communities may include:

We also have an extensive and ongoing maintenance program to keep all communities and apartment homes substantially free of deferred maintenance and, where vacant, available for immediate occupancy. We believe that the aesthetic appeal of our communities and a service oriented property management team focused on the specific needs of residents enhances market appeal to discriminating residents. We believe this will ultimately achieve higher rental rates and occupancy levels while minimizing resident turnover and operating expenses.

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These Current Communities are located in the following geographic markets:

We manage and operate all of the Current Communities. During the year ended December 31, 2002, we completed construction of 2,521 apartment homes in ten communities for a total cost of $466,600,000. The average age of the Current Communities, on a weighted average basis according to number of apartment homes, is 8.1 years.

Of the Current Communities, as of February 1, 2003, we own:

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We also hold a fee simple ownership interest in nine of the Development Communities, a membership interest in a limited liability company that holds a fee simple interest in a Development Community and a general partnership interest in two partnerships structured as “DownREITs” that each own one Development Community.

In each of the six partnerships structured as DownREITs, either we or one of our wholly-owned subsidiaries is the general partner, and there are one or more limited partners whose interest in the partnership is represented by units of limited partnership interest. For each DownREIT partnership, limited partners are entitled to receive an initial distribution before any distribution is made to the general partner. Although the partnership agreements for each of the DownREITs are different, generally the distributions per unit paid to the holders of units of limited partnership interests have approximated our current common stock dividend amount. Each DownREIT partnership has been structured so that it is unlikely the limited partners will be entitled to a distribution greater than the initial distribution provided for in the applicable partnership agreement. The holders of units of limited partnership interest have the right to present each unit of limited partnership interest for redemption for cash equal to the fair market value of a share of our common stock on the date of redemption. In lieu of cash, we may elect to acquire any unit presented for redemption for one share of our common stock. As of February 1, 2003, there were 975,751 DownREIT partnership units outstanding. The DownREIT partnerships are consolidated for financial reporting purposes.

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Profile of Current and Development Communities
(Dollars in thousands, except per apartment home data)

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