Currently, over 98% of our third quarter rental and related charges have been collected.
Demand throughout our communities remain strong as evidenced by our 320 basis point improvement in same community occupancy and our 54% sales growth as compared to the same quarter last year.
We further demonstrated the success of our business plan by obtaining $106 million of GSE financing at 2.62%.
This loan pioneered GSE acceptance of up to 60% rental homes in communities.
Subsequent to quarter end, this capital was used to redeem our 8% Series B preferred stock.
This 500 basis point improvement will result in over $5 million in additional FFO per year or approximately $0.12 per share.
Normalized FFO for the third quarter was $0.18 per diluted share compared to $0.15 in the prior year period.
This represents an increase of 20%.
We are pleased that our $0.18 dividend per quarter is now fully covered by our current operating performance.
Total income for the quarter is up 16%.
Year-to-date, total income is up 11%.
Our operating expense ratio has decreased from 47.8% to 44.6%.
The combination of income growth and expense ratio reduction resulted in overall NOI growth of 17% for the quarter and 19% for the year.
Our same-property occupancy rate improved 320 basis points to 86.9% from the same quarter last year.
This translates to an increase of 706 revenue-producing sites year-over-year.
This occupancy growth has contributed to income growth of 8.6% for the third quarter and 7.8% year-to-date, generating same-property NOI growth of 12.9% and 13.7%, respectively.
We have increased our rental home portfolio by 684 units so far this year.
We are on track to add 800 to 900 new rental units this year.
We now own approximately 8,100 rental homes.
At quarter end, our rental home occupancy rate was 95.4%.
This line allows us to tap into the equity that we have in our rental homes at a reasonable rate of prime plus 25 basis points.
Gross sales for the quarter were $6.8 million, representing an increase of 54% over the same period last year.
Gross sales for the year are at $15 million, which is now up 8% over the first three quarters of 2019.
Our sales generated income of approximately $640,000 for the quarter and approximately $450,000 for the year.
We remain on track to complete the development of 191 sites this year.
In 2021, we expect to obtain approvals on approximately 800 sites.
We should develop about 400 of these approved sites in the next 18 months.
During the quarter, we closed on the acquisition of two communities containing 310 sites for a total purchase price of $7.8 million or $25,000 per site.
These are value-add communities with an in-place occupancy rate of 64%.
These communities contain approximately 580 sites, of which 64% are occupied.
The total purchase price for these communities is $21 million or $36,000 per site.
We have covered our $0.18 dividend prior to the positive impact that the redemption and refinance of our Series B preferred will have on earnings.
This change in our capital stack is expected to add $0.12 of FFO per share annually.
Normalized FFO, which excludes realized gains on the sale of securities and other nonrecurring items, was $7.4 million or $0.18 per diluted share for the third quarter of 2020 compared to $6 million or $0.15 per diluted share for the prior year period.
As we had previously announced, we redeemed all 3.8 million issued and outstanding shares of our 8% Series B cumulative redeemable preferred stock totaling $95 million on October 20.
This, together with our recent GSE financing, will generate savings of approximately 500 basis points or $0.12 per share annually going forward.
Rental and related income for the quarter was $36.4 million compared to $32.9 million a year ago, representing an increase of 10%.
Community NOI increased by 17% for the quarter from $17.2 million in 2019 to $20.1 million in 2020.
Our operating expense ratio improved from 47.5% for the third quarter of 2019 to 44.7% for the current quarter.
For the nine months, our expense ratio decreased from 47.8% to 44.6%.
At quarter end, our portfolio average monthly site rent increased by 2.7% to $455 over the same period last year.
Our average monthly home rent increased by 2.8% to $781 over the same period last year.
Same-property income for the third quarter increased 8.6% over the same period last year, while expenses increased by 3.2%, resulting in same-property NOI growth of 12.9%.
Sales of manufactured homes increased 54% for the quarter from $4.4 million in 2019 to $6.8 million in 2020.
We sold a total of 108 homes, of which 48 were new home sales and 60 were used home sales.
The gross profit percentage improved from 25% for the three months ended September 30, 2019, to 31% for the current quarter.
For the nine months, we sold a total of 252 homes, of which 102 were new home sales and 150 were used home sales.
The gross profit percentage was 29% and 27% for the nine months ended September 30, 2020 and 2019, respectively.
As we turn to our capital structure, at quarter end, we had approximately $507 million in debt, of which $472 million was community level mortgage debt and $35 million was loans payable.
93% of our total debt is fixed rate.
The weighted average interest rate on our mortgage debt was 3.81% at quarter end compared to 4.14% in the prior year.
The weighted average maturity on our mortgage debt was 6.3 years at quarter end compared to 6.2 years a year ago.
At quarter end, UMH had a total of $383 million in perpetual preferred equity, not including the $95 million of our Series B preferred stock, which was redeemed on October 20.
Our preferred stock, combined with an equity market capitalization of $564 million and our $507 million in debt, results in a total market capitalization of approximately $1.5 billion at quarter end, representing an increase of 3% over the prior year period.
From a credit standpoint, our net debt to total market capitalization was 31%.
Our net debt less securities to total market capitalization was 25%.
Our net debt to adjusted EBITDA was 5.8 times.
Our net debt less securities to adjusted EBITDA was 4.7 times.
Our interest coverage was 4.1 times, and our fixed charge coverage was 1.5 times.
From a liquidity standpoint, we ended the quarter with $55 million in cash and cash equivalents, $60 million available on our unsecured credit facility with an additional $50 million potentially available pursuant to an accordion feature and $29 million available on our revolving lines of credit for the financing of home sales and the purchase of inventory.
We also had $85 million unencumbered in our REIT securities portfolio.
This portfolio represents approximately 6% of our undepreciated assets.
We limit our portfolio to no more than 15% of our undepreciated assets.
Through our preferred and common stock ATM programs, we raised net proceeds of $9.8 million during the quarter and $73 million during the nine months.
Subsequent to quarter end, we raised an additional $14.2 million through these programs.
Additionally, as Sam mentioned, in October, we entered into a $20 million line of credit with FirstBank secured by our rental homes and the income derived by them.
This line is expandable to $30 million with an accordion feature.
In conjunction with the Series B preferred stock redemption, subsequent to quarter end, we drew down $30 million on our unsecured credit facility and $26 million on our margin line.
We have been incredibly pleased with the performance of our portfolio of 124 communities.
We have built a much needed important housing company over our 53 year history.

Summary:
Normalized FFO for the third quarter was $0.18 per diluted share compared to $0.15 in the prior year period.
We are pleased that our $0.18 dividend per quarter is now fully covered by our current operating performance.
We have covered our $0.18 dividend prior to the positive impact that the redemption and refinance of our Series B preferred will have on earnings.
Normalized FFO, which excludes realized gains on the sale of securities and other nonrecurring items, was $7.4 million or $0.18 per diluted share for the third quarter of 2020 compared to $6 million or $0.15 per diluted share for the prior year period.