For example, Oregon's unemployment rate was 8% in September essentially matching the national rate.
That's down from a 14.9% high in April.
In the Portland metro region, year-to-date closed home sales were up 3.1% from 2019 with stronger year-over-year price growth of about 10%.
As a result, we have connected over 13,800 meters during the last 12 months ended September 30th and that's 300 more meters than we added at this time last year.
Our overall customer growth rate is 1.9% for the 12 months ended September and reflects a lower level of customer disconnecting from our system during the pandemic.
The order includes the $45.1 million increase in our revenues requirement based on a 50/50 cap structure, a return of equity of 9.4% and a cost of capital is just under 7%.
In addition, the order reflects an average rate base of $1.44 billion or an increase of $242 million compared to the last rate case.
In Oregon, the combined effect of the rate case and annual purchase gas adjustment resulted in a $2 increase to a residential customers monthly bill.
Overall gas bills continue to remain low, Northwest Natural customers are paying about 30% or excuse me 40% less today for their bills than they did 15 years ago.
In addition, in June we passed back a record of $17 million in storage bill credits to Oregon gas customers.
Our annual dividend amount is now $1.92 per share.
Through September 30th, we have incurred an estimated $7 million of incremental cost and lower revenue.
In the third quarter, we recognized a $3.1 million regulatory asset for Oregon costs incurred to date.
At the end of September, this revenue totaled approximately $1 million.
In summary of the $7 million of total financial impact as of September 30th, we expect to recover $4.4 million through rates under these orders with $3.1 million deferred in the third quarter.
In addition to these deferrals in order to further mitigate the financial effects of the pandemic, we initiated temporary cost-savings measures which provided approximately $2 million of savings for the third quarter and year-to-date.
I'll describe earnings drivers on an after-tax basis using the statutory tax rate of 26.5%.
The return of excess deferred income taxes to our Oregon customers resulted in an effective tax rate of 22.3%.
Also note that year-to-date earnings per share comparisons were impacted by the issuance of 1.4 million shares in June 2019 as we raised equity to fund investment in our gas utility.
For the quarter, we reported a net loss from continuing operations of $18.7 million or $0.61 per share compared to a net loss of $18.5 million or $0.61 per share for the same period in 2019.
The gas utility posted a decline of $0.08 per share related to higher depreciation and general tax expense, partially offset by the recognition of the regulatory deferral asset for COVID-19 which I discussed earlier.
In the gas distribution segment, utility margin declined $300,000 as the benefit of customer growth and higher rates in Washington was slightly more than offset by a decrease in revenues from late charges and reconnection fees and slightly lower usage from the industrial and large customer use -- large commercial customers that are not decoupled.
Utility O&M increased $700,000 in the quarter as we incurred higher compensation and non-payroll expenses, partially offset by the cost savings measures and deferral of expenses related to COVID-19.
Depreciation expense and general taxes increased $2.4 million related to ongoing investment in our system.
Finally, interest expense for the quarter decreased $1.2 million as we deferred interest incurred to increased cash balances in March.
For the first nine months of 2020, we reported net income from continuing operations of $24.5 million or $0.80 per share compared to net income of $27 million or $0.91 per share for the same period last year.
Last year's results included a regulatory disallowance of $0.22 per share related to an Oregon Commission order.
Excluding that disallowance on an adjusted non-GAAP basis, earnings per share from continuing operations was $1.13 per share for 2019.
The $0.33 per share decline is largely due to year-over-year growth in expenses and the effects of COVID.
In the gas distribution segment, utility margin declined $100,000.
Higher customer rates in Washington, customer growth, and revenues from the North Mist expansion project contributed an additional $10.4 million.
This was offset by lower entitlement and curtailment fees related to pipeline constraints in 2019 and warmer weather in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the prior year, which collectively reduced margin by $4.8 million.
Utility margin also declined $1.1 million due to lower revenue from late and reconnection fees as we suspended normal collection processes.
The remaining $5.2 million decline in utility margin is a result of the March 2019 Oregon order related to tax reform and pension expense.
Utility O&M and other expenses declined $6.4 million during the first nine months of 2020.
This decrease is associated with the Oregon order, which resulted in $14 million of additional expense in the first quarter of last year as previously discussed.
This was offset by a $6.4 million increase in underlying O&M related to higher compensation costs, contractor and professional service as well as moving costs for our new headquarters and operation center.
As a result, depreciation expense and general taxes increased $7.3 million.
Finally, utility segment tax expense in 2019 included a $5.9 million benefit related to the implementation of the March order, with no significant resulting effect on net income.
Net income from our other businesses increased $900,000 from higher earnings from our water and wastewater utilities and lower expenses at our holding company, partially offset by lower asset management revenues.
A few notes on cash flow, for the first nine months of 2020, the company generated $149 million in operating cash flow.
We invested $227 million into the business with $193 million of primarily gas utility, capital expenditures, and $38 million for water acquisitions.
We continue to expect capital expenditures this year to be in the range of $240 million to $280 million.
Going into the heating season, 96% of our commercial and industrial customers are current with their bills.
Today, we reaffirm guidance for continuing operations in the range of $2.25 per share to $2.45 per share and guided toward the lower end of the range, due to the potential implications from COVID-19.
At the same time, we're also advancing key long-term objectives, that includes aggressively pursuing a renewable future and a carbon-neutral vision for our gas utility by 2050.
In fact, the existing gas system has provided nearly twice as much energy on a peak heating day as the electric system, and yet the use of natural gas in our customers' homes and businesses accounts for just 6% of Oregon's greenhouse gas emissions annually.
That's a very efficient delivery of a lot of energy, but we know we can do better, which is why we established a voluntary carbon savings goal of 30% by 2035 for emissions from our own operations and our sales customers' usage.
In 2019, we achieved 21% of the savings needed to meet this goal.
That's equivalent to removing over 60,000 cars from the road.
Back in 2002, we were one of the first gas utilities in the country to obtain a decoupling mechanism, which supports the energy efficiency move.
In 2007, Northwest Natural was the first stand-alone gas facility in the country to offer customers a voluntary program that allows them to offset some or all of their carbon emissions from natural gas use.
We understand more about RNG and hydrogen today and now have and we now have policy support with the groundbreaking Senate Bill 98 in Oregon.
In fact, at 20 billion cubic feet, our Mist underground storage facility is equivalent to about six million-megawatt hours of electricity storage.
That's about a $2 trillion battery at today's prices and many times larger than the biggest lithium battery in the world.

Summary:
For the quarter, we reported a net loss from continuing operations of $18.7 million or $0.61 per share compared to a net loss of $18.5 million or $0.61 per share for the same period in 2019.
Today, we reaffirm guidance for continuing operations in the range of $2.25 per share to $2.45 per share and guided toward the lower end of the range, due to the potential implications from COVID-19.