As part of our multifamily recycling strategy, we acquired the 280-unit Colonial Grand at Windermere

Ladies and gentlemen thank you for standing by. Welcome military discount hotel to the Colonial Properties Trust First Quarter 2013 Conference Call. During the presentation all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Afterwards, we will conduct the question-and-answer session. (Operator Instructions)
Let me remind you that much of the information we discuss on this call, including answers we give in response to your questions, may include forward-looking statements regarding our beliefs and current expectations with respect to various matters. These estimates are based on a number of assumptions, military discount hotel any of which unrealized could adversely affect their accuracy.
Please see our latest SEC filings for the detail on explanation of risk. Any non-GAAP financial measures we discuss are reconciled to the closest GAAP measures in filings that can be found on our website.
Tom Lowder, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer will lead today's call. Joining us will be Brad Sandidge, our Interim military discount hotel CFO; Paul Earle, our Chief Operating Officer is also here to field questions.
Thank you, Jerry, and welcome to everyone joining us. As I outlined last quarter, the CEO directives for 2013 are to first of all advance the company, secondly, fortify the balance sheet, and last, enhance the portfolio.
We are off to another strong start this year on all of these directives. We are advancing the company military discount hotel with our development pipeline and growing core operations. In the first quarter, we completed two new apartment communities, adding another 404 units and four more communities are currently under construction.
In fortifying the balance sheet, we are lowering our overall debt levels through our commercial asset sales resulting an improved balance sheet metrics. As Jerry will discuss in a moment, we demonstrated continue improvement and have already eliminated military discount hotel our only consolidated debt maturity for this year.
The acquisition of Colonial Grand at Windermere in March is the latest example of the benefits of this strategy. Through selling our older multifamily military discount hotel assets and acquiring new assets military discount hotel we continue to bring down the average age of our portfolio, increase the average revenue per unit, position ourselves in strong market, since market and leverage strong occupancy to drive rents higher.
The operating fundamentals in the multifamily business continue to be strong, primarily driven by continue job growth in our Sunbelt markets. Throughout the first quarter our new lease rates gain momentum in each month and our renewal rates remain military discount hotel strong. With our occupancy level at 96%, we are well-positioned to enter the spring leasing season to build on our momentum and continue to push rents.
We will take this opportunity and thank our shareholders who attended our Annual Meeting yesterday, as well as our Colonial star performing employees. Also congratulations to all of our annual award winners last night, especially Amber Fairbanks, military discount hotel our Senior Vice President for our North Carolina Portfolio who received our top E. L. Lowder Founder Award.
Thank you, Tom. FFO for the first quarter was $0.34 per share compared with $0.30 per share a year ago. Our first quarter same property net operating income increased 6.8%, while revenue increased 5.2% and expenses military discount hotel increased 2.8% versus the prior year.
The increase in revenue was primarily driven by our higher average revenue per occupied unit of $959, which is up 4.6% from the first quarter of 2012 and 0.6%, sequentially. Dallas, Charlotte, Fort Worth and Raleigh all posted revenue growth above 7% for the quarter.
Renewal rates were up 7% in the first quarter, while new lease rates were down slightly, resulting in a blended rental rate growth of 2.9% for the quarter. New lease rates were up 0.8% in March, in line with historical seasonal trend. Month-to-date new lease rates for April are up 1.8% and renewal rates are up 6.4% for April as well.
Our asking rents today are up 4.3% as compared to the asking rate a year ago today. The increase in expanses was primarily due to an increase in property taxes, which is in line with our previously military discount hotel provided guidance.
Turn costs were lower than expected this quarter as a direct result of lower turnover for maintaining our higher occupancy. Rents as a percent of resident income were healthy 16.8% for the quarter. Resident turnover was only 58%, which is 160 basis points below the prior year and well below over our long-term average. Move-outs related to homebuyers for the quarter were 61.1% and move-outs related to home rentals was 4.7%.
Although, new supply military discount hotel is ramping up in Austin, Charlotte, Dallas and Raleigh, we experience strong revenue growth in all those markets during the quarter. These same markets also experience some of the best job growth.
Overall job growth military discount hotel in our markets averaged 2.6% in the last 12 months versus national job growth of 1.6%. Our markets based on active metric forecast military discount hotel for 2013 are projected to have 7.5 new jobs for every new unit of delivery this year.
In the first quarter, military discount hotel we continue to create shareholder military discount hotel value with our multifamily developments. We completed 296-unit Colonial Grand at Double Creek in Austin and 108-unit Colonial Grand at Lake Mary Phase II. Both developments were delivered below budget and lease up is progressing as planned. Colonial Grand at Double Creek is currently 82% leased and Colonial Grand at Lake Mary Phase II is already 67% leased.
Our development pipeline continues military discount hotel to be a significant source of value creation for our shareholders. In this cycle we have delivered four new developments with over 1,100 units with established yields ranging from 7.5% to 8.5%. This represents a 200 to 300 basis points spared over Class A acquisition cap rates in our markets.
During the quarter, we started military discount hotel the final phase of Colonial Grand at Lake Mary, which includes an additional 132 units within expected total cost of $16.1 million. military discount hotel We currently have four developments under construction, representing 1,028 units in Orlando and Charlotte, with total costs projected to be approximately $140 million.
Thank you, Brad. We have remained active with our commercial asset sales in our multifamily recycling. military discount hotel On the commercial side, we completed the sale of our Metropolitan Midtown mixed-use property in Charlotte for $94.4 million, representing a 7.2% cap rate.
The proceeds were used to reduce outstanding balance on our line of credit and fund our development pipeline. With this sale we have reached our goal of having at least 90% of our total NOI being generated from the multifamily portfolio.
As part of our multifamily recycling strategy, we acquired the 280-unit Colonial Grand at Windermere in Orlando for $43 million. This is a Class A garden-style apartment community located in the Windemere Submarket of Orlando, totalling three years old and it was 95% occupied at the end of the quarter. The property s average monthly revenue is $1,235 per unit.
Just last week we sold Colonial Reserve at West Franklin, a 332-unit apartment community for $23.8 million representing military discount hotel a cap rate of 6.5%. West Franklin was a 49-year old property located in Richmond, Virginia, with an average monthly rent of $704 per unit.
Our balance sheet metrics continued to improve as a result of the improvement in our core earnings, coupled with our commercial asset sales and having military discount hotel four of our developments completed in production.
At quarter end, our debt to gross asset value was 43.8% fixed charge ratio was 2.5 times for the quarter and debt-to-EBITDA was 7.7 times. Our line of credit balance at the end of the quarter was $116 million. As Tom mentioned earlier this month, we paid off our only consolidated debt maturity for 2013, an unsecured bond of $100 million revolving from our unsecured line of credit.
Okay. Thanks, Jerry. military discount hotel Our full-year 2013 FFO guidance remains unchanged in the $1.34 to $1.40 per share. Our full year estimates for multifamily same property net operating income are likewise unchanged, military discount hotel as we expect to maintain financial occupancy around 95%, and continued to push for renewal lease rates as we head into the peak leasing season.
While it is still early in the process, we continue to expect our annual property tax expense to increase military discount hotel 7% to 8% this year, with our total expenses being up 4% to 5% over last year. We expect the acquisition military discount hotel market to remain competitive in 2013, as investors continue to chase yield.
We forecasted acquisitions of $113 million to $175 million and dispositions of $275 million to $325 million. About half of our disposition guidance is comprised of commercial properties and we are well on our way on that goal with the sale of Metropolitan Midtown.
While, we ve achieved our stated goal of having at least 90% of our income from the multifamily portfolio, our strategy has continue to reduce our commercial exposure, so we will continue to look for opportunities when the timing is right to sell all the commercial properties.
This ultimate timing and volume of potentially sales will impact future FFO results. We still anticipate development spending of $125 million to $150 million for the full year. We completed $20 million of this spending for the first quarter and have another four developments currently military discount hotel underway.
Our guidance assumptions, includes starting military discount hotel another four new developments on land that we already have on our books. Our first quarter results have put us in a good position as we head into the peak leasing season and we expect our renewal lease rates to continue to improve, while maintaining a high level of occupancy.
The outlook for recovery and job growth across our markets, along with the positive demographic trend are anticipated to generate growth military discount hotel and demand for our product. Our markets continued to produce more jobs than the national average. At this time, the bulk of new supply will be later this year to early next year before we see anything material. For our portfolio, military discount hotel the new supplies primarily coming where we see the highest job growth as we