We are not out of the woods by any means as the senior housing industry continues to be challenged by new deliveries and labor issues, which we do not expect to improve for at least the next several quarters, but we are generally encouraged by slowing inventory growth and very strong net absorption, which in 2019 showed the highest level of demand in the 13 years since NIC has been collecting this data.
We have remained optimistic despite some of the headwinds and announced $329 million in acquisitions in 2019 primarily with existing partners.
In 2020, we have already announced $150 million, including $135 million for Timber Ridge, which is a Class A CCRC just outside of Seattle and we are thrilled to partner with LCS on this deal.
With the Timber Ridge acquisition, we are dipping our toes back into RIDEA with a 25% interest in OpCo, but unlike other RIDEA structures more common with healthcare REITs, we've done so with an embedded triple net lease that mitigates volatility of the underlying operation to NHI's shareholders.
We recently announced a 5% increase in our dividend, which marks the 11th straight year we have increased the quarterly dividend by 5% or more while maintaining a coverage ratio below 80% of normalized FFO for the last seven years.
Beginning with our three FFO performance metrics on a diluted common share basis for the fourth quarter ending December 31st, 2019, NAREIT FFO increased 6.9% to $1.39, normalized FFO increased 4.4% to $1.41, and adjusted FFO increased 2.4% to $1.30.
On a full year basis, NAREIT FFO per diluted common share increased 2.4% to $5.49, normalized FFO increased 0.7% to $5.50, and adjusted FFO increased 1.2% to $5.10, which as Eric previously mentioned, was at the top-end of our guidance range.
For the year ending December 31st, 2019, cash NOI increased 7% to $290.5 million compared to $271.5 million in the prior year.
A reconciliation of cash NOI can be found on Page 17 of our Q4 2019 SEC filed supplemental.
G&A expense for the 2019 fourth quarter increased 28% over the prior year fourth quarter and for the entire year increased 6.8% over 2018 to $13.4 million.
Included in the fourth quarter and full year 2019 G&A expense was approximately $716,000 in severance.
Excluding the severance expense, G&A increased 2.7% in the fourth quarter over the prior year's fourth quarter and 1.1% for the full year compared to 2018.
Turning to the balance sheet, we ended the year with $1.44 billion in total debt, of which a little over 90% was unsecured.
At December 31st, we had $250 million capacity on our $550 million revolver.
During December, NHI entered into privately negotiated agreements with certain holders of our 3.25% convertible senior notes under which we issued 626,397 shares of NHI common stock plus cash consideration and payment of fees totaling $22.1 million to redeem $60 million in aggregate principal amount of our outstanding convertible notes.
As a result of the redemption at year-end, NHI's aggregate balance of convertible notes is now $60 million, which will mature in April of 2021.
Our debt capital metrics for the quarter ending December 31st were net debt to annualized adjusted EBITDA at 4.7 times, weighted average debt maturity at four years, and our fixed charge coverage ratio at 5.7 times.
For the quarter ended December 31st, our weighted average cost of debt was 3.54%.
We expect NFFO to be in the range of $5.67 to $5.71 per diluted share or an increase of 3.5% at the midpoint.
We also expect AFFO to be in the range of $5.31 to $5.35 or an increase of 4.5% at the midpoint.
Our guidance issued today includes effects from the recently announced Brookdale purchase option, expected contributions from the recently announced Timber Ridge joint venture, continued fulfillment of our commitments as detailed in our 10-K, and line of sight on unannounced investments under LOIs totaling approximately $50 million.
While we don't expect the cash NOI in the nine transition properties to return to 2018 levels this year, we do expect them to get to between 40% and 45% of the way back to 2018 levels.
We do believe though after straight-line rent, the GAAP revenues for the transition properties will get to between 60% and 65% of the way back to the 2018 levels.
Moving forward, we wanted to also provide you with pro forma routine capital expenditure and non-refundable entrance fee cash flows attributable to our 25% share in the Timber Ridge OpCo.
We increased our quarterly dividend 5% or $0.0525 [Phonetic] to $1.1025 per common share.
Looking at the overall portfolio, at the end of the third quarter, the EBITDARM coverage ratio was 1.66 times for the total portfolio compared to 1.65 times in the year earlier period and 1.69 times in the prior quarter.
Senior housing coverage declined year-over-year as expected to 1.14 times compared to 1.23 times last year in 1.15 times in the prior quarter, and our skilled portfolio at 2.73 times improved from 2.55 times last year, but declined from 2.8 times in the June quarter.
The sequential decline is attributable to NHC as the non-NHC SNF coverage improved to 1.92 times from 1.87 times in the June quarter and we are still very comfortable with the NHC coverage, which was 3.69 times in the third quarter.
According to recent NIC data, properties with an average age of 10 years to 17 years have the highest occupancy followed by properties with an average age of 25 plus years.
Interestingly, the lowest occupancy was reported for properties with an average age of 2 years to 10 years.
Turning to our operators by revenue, Bickford Senior Living represents 18% of our cash revenue and had an EBITDARM coverage ratio of 1.07 times for the trailing 12 months ended September 30th.
The Bickford EBITDARM coverage was 1.12 times, including a development property, which will roll into the coverage calculation in the fourth quarter, the Bickford total and same-store coverage was 1.09 times and 1.14 times respectively.
Bickford's total and same-store leased portfolio occupancy improved by 160 basis points and 230 basis points respectively in the fourth quarter of 2019 compared to the same quarter in 2018.
Lastly, NHI exercised its purchase option on the Bickford Shelby property for $15.1 million at an initial yield of 8% during the first quarter of 2020.
This transaction is similar to the Bickford Gurnee deal and that it replaces a $14 million construction loan we had in place previously.
Our relationship with SLC represents 16% of our annualized cash revenue.
Including net entry fee income, their EBITDARM coverage ratio was 1.1 times on a trailing 12-month basis.
This compares to 1.28 times in the year earlier period and 1.1 times for the June quarter.
Our next largest partnership is with NHC, which accounts for 14% of our annualized cash revenue.
As previously mentioned NHC had a corporate fixed charge coverage of 3.69 times in the September quarter.
Lastly, Holiday Retirement, which represents 12% of our cash revenue, had an EBITDARM coverage ratio of 1.21 times, which is a slight improvement on both a year-over-year and sequential basis.
In the fourth quarter, we continued to expand our relationship with 41 Management with the acquisition of a 48-unit assisted living and memory care community in the St. Paul, Minnesota area for $9.34 million at an initial cash yield of 7.23%.
We also extended a second mortgage loan of $3.87 million at a rate of 13% on an assisted living community in Bellevue, Wisconsin.
We also exercised our purchase option and formed a joint venture with LCS to own and operate the 401-unit Timber Ridge CCRC for $135 million effective January 31st.
As Eric mentioned earlier, this deal includes a RIDEA structure whereby NHI holds an 80% interest in the PropCo and a 25% interest in the OpCo.
PropCo is leasing the community to OpCo under a seven-year triple net lease at an initial yield of 6.75%.
NHI is also providing financing of $81 million to PropCo or approximately 60% of the purchase price.
Regarding the acquisition environment and pipelines, we announced $329 million in acquisitions during 2019 and we are off to a good start in 2020 with announced deals already totaling $150 million.
Our $25 million investment has a yield of 9.5% and we expect rent to commence when it opens in the second quarter.

Summary:
Beginning with our three FFO performance metrics on a diluted common share basis for the fourth quarter ending December 31st, 2019, NAREIT FFO increased 6.9% to $1.39, normalized FFO increased 4.4% to $1.41, and adjusted FFO increased 2.4% to $1.30.
We expect NFFO to be in the range of $5.67 to $5.71 per diluted share or an increase of 3.5% at the midpoint.
We also expect AFFO to be in the range of $5.31 to $5.35 or an increase of 4.5% at the midpoint.