In the last 90 days supply chain dislocations have become even more pronounced, with customers acting with a sense of urgency to secure the space they need.
During the third quarter, we signed 56 million square feet of leases and issued proposals on 84 million square feet.
Spaces above 100,000 square feet are effectively fully leased.
Our last touch segment continued to gain momentum with new lease signings growing by 44%.
Given the sharp ramp-up in demand, we are raising our 2021 US forecast for net absorption by 14% to a record 375 million square feet against deliveries of 285 million square feet, resulting in year-end vacancy reaching a new low of 4%.
Strong demand is being met with historic low vacancy pre-leasing in the US, the Liberty pipeline has reached 70%, its highest level ever as customers continue to compete for space.
In the third quarter alone, rents grew 7.1% in our US markets, far exceeding our expectations.
We are increasing our 2021 market rent forecast significantly to an all-time high of 19% for the US and 70% globally, both up approximately 700 basis points.
Our in-place-to-market rent spread jumped 500 basis points in the quarter and is now approximately 22% with an upward bias.
This current rent spread represents embedded organic NOI growth of more than $925 million or $1.25 per share.
Our logistics portfolio posted the largest quarterly increase in our history, rising 9.5% globally, bringing the year-to-date increased to an impressive 4% -- an impressive 24%, sorry about that.
Core FFO was $1.04 per share, with net promote earnings of $0.01.
Rent change on rollover was strong at 27.9%, slightly lower sequentially due to mix.
Average occupancy was 96.6%, up 60 basis points sequentially and we reached 98% leased at quarter end.
Cash same-store NOI growth accelerated to 6.7%, up 90 basis points sequentially.
Margins on development stabilizations remained elevated, coming in at 47%.
Our development starts were $1.4 billion, consisting of 31 projects across 21 markets, with estimated value creation of more than $520 million.
Turning to strategic capital, our team raised almost $500 million in the third quarter and $2.5 billion year-to-date.
Equity cues for our open-ended vehicles were $3.4 billion at quarter end, another all-time high.
We are tightening and increasing our cash same-store NOI growth to now range between 5.75% and 6%.
We're increasing the midpoint for strategic capital revenue, excluding promotes by $12.5 million and now range between $480 million and $485 million.
We expect net promote income of $0.05 per share for the year, an increase of $0.03 from our prior guidance.
In response to strong demand, we are increasing development starts by $450 million to a new midpoint of $3.7 billion.
Our owned and managed land portfolio now supports 180 million square feet and more than $21 billion of future build-out potential, providing a clear runway for significant value creation over the next several years.
We're also increasing the midpoint for acquisitions by $500 million.
We now expect net deployment uses of $650 million at the midpoint.
Taking these assumptions into account, we are increasing our core FFO midpoint by $0.06 and narrowing the range to $4.11 to $4.13 per share.
Core FFO excluding promotes will range between $4.06 and $4.08 per share, representing year-over-year growth at the midpoint of almost 14%, while deleveraging by more than 300 basis points.
We expect to generate $1.4 billion in free cash flow after dividends with a very conservative payout ratio below 60% range.
Our 22% in-place-to-market rent spread, the valuation impact on promotes, our leverage capacity, the $21 billion of development, build out, and most importantly the vast opportunity set that our global footprint provides, all pave the way for both significant and durable long-term growth.

Summary:
Core FFO was $1.04 per share, with net promote earnings of $0.01.
Cash same-store NOI growth accelerated to 6.7%, up 90 basis points sequentially.
Taking these assumptions into account, we are increasing our core FFO midpoint by $0.06 and narrowing the range to $4.11 to $4.13 per share.