Excluding our best office asset, Watergate 600, for which we believe we can drive even greater value for $766 million.
We have also given notice that we are redeeming the $300 million 2022 notes and expect to complete that redemption in late August.
We also are now under a binding agreement to sell our remaining retail assets to a single buyer for $168.3 million and expect that transaction to close in the third quarter.
Following these transactions, not only will we have recycled only -- over $5 billion of assets to improve our portfolio, but we also decreased leverage, increased liquidity, and lengthened our debt ladder.
Year-over-year effective rents for Atlanta, Raleigh/Durham, and Charlotte grew by 14.3%, 10.3%, and 10.6%, respectively, in June as reported by RealPage.
New lease trade outs were even stronger, averaging 17.9% across the three markets and a 670 basis point inflection between April and June.
Average concessions remained in the low-single digits in each market, averaging just 5.5%, catching up slightly over the quarter from 5.1% in the first quarter.
However, the breadth of the market offering concessions retreated markedly with just 15% of units across the three markets offering concessions in the second quarter, down 630 basis points over the quarter.
Reported first quarter annual demand had already exceeded the 5-year average in each target market yet it jumped nearly 30% higher in the second quarter.
Raleigh/Durham and Charlotte posted second quarter annual demand at 156% and 151% of their 5-year averages, respectively, while Atlanta's second quarter annual demand topped 186% of its 5-year demand trend.
Year-over-year effective rents turned positive in June for the first time since April 2020, with particular improvement in June as effective rents climbed 214 basis points higher than the second quarter average.
Suburban Virginia's performance followed a similar pattern but with even stronger growth with year-over-year effective rent growth accelerating to 5.9% in June, 245 basis points better than the second quarter average.
Average concessions in the Washington market declined 200 basis points in the second quarter to 9.1%.
The breadth of the market offering concessions also declined with 19.7% of units in the Washington market offering concessions in the second quarter down 250 basis points versus the first quarter.
Our current same-store multifamily portfolio has approximately 6,700 units, and is 96% occupied.
Our average monthly rent is just under $1,700 per door.
We are slightly above 96% occupied in suburban multifamily assets and 95.8% overall.
Furthermore, two-thirds of our current 2,800 unit renovation pipeline is in our suburban assets.
Meanwhile, suburban lease rate growth has been exceptionally strong, reaching over 5% on an effective basis for July move-ins.
We have now fully delivered and invested in Trove which delivered only $200,000 of NOI in the first quarter and approximately $425,000 in the second quarter, but most importantly, its lease-up now has tremendous momentum.
Since April 1, we have signed 160 leases or slightly over 40 leases per month, well above the regional average of 13 leases per month.
This increased demand allowed us to further push market rents by over 8% while also reducing concessions.
Our multifamily rent collections have remained strong at 99% throughout the pandemic as our research has led us to focus on renters with solid credit in areas that offer a higher relative exposure to the strongest employment sectors.
Rate growth for new lease executions has improved over 10% over the last seven weeks, on a gross basis.
The average concession per unit for move-ins scheduled for July and August is 70% lower than the second quarter average, representing a $630 decline in concessions per unit.
Blended lease rate growth improved 460 basis points from the first quarter to the second quarter on an effective basis.
The acceleration has continued into July and blended effective lease rates have already improved by another 240 basis points thus far, in July on an effective basis.
New lease rates has shown the most significant improvement with average new lease rate growth improving over 600 basis points from June to July on an effective basis.
Our suburban properties continue to outperform our urban properties and average new lease rate growth increased 5% thus far in July on a year-over-year basis.
Applications and move-in activity remains strong as net applications increased 35% during the second quarter compared to the prior year.
Same-store occupancy grew 60 basis points post quarter end to 95.8%, allowing us to continue to push rents.
And on the renewal side, there have been very good demand and renewal lease rate growth is currently tracking above 3% on average, with suburban renewal lease rate growth tracking above 5% on an average.
Leasing momentum continues to grow with Trove now over 76% occupied and 81% leased.
As Paul said, two-thirds of our 2,800 unit renovation pipeline is in our suburban communities, where occupancy and effective lease rates are the strongest.
Year-to-date, we have fully renovated our 90 units and invested capital in upgrading 80 additional units.
Just this month, we completed 30 renovations and we are optimistic this momentum will further increase this summer.
Net loss for the second quarter of 2021 was approximately $7 million or $0.08 per diluted share compared to a net loss of $5.4 million or $0.07 per diluted share in the prior year.
Core FFO of $0.35 per diluted share was at the top end of our guidance range driven by stronger than expected results from both our multifamily and office portfolios.
On a year-over-year basis, Core FFO per share declined by $0.04 due primarily to the impact of the pandemic on rental and other income on the comparative period basis, and higher interest in G&A expenses.
Multifamily same-store NOI declined 2% on the GAAP and cash basis for the second quarter compared to the prior year, primarily driven by the combination of lease rate declines and higher concessions on leases signed during the pandemic.
Other same-store NOI declined 4.6% on the GAAP basis and 1.7% on the cash basis in the second quarter compared to the prior year period, primarily due to lower cost recoveries and higher utility expenses.
To briefly summarize commercial leasing activity we signed approximately 24,000 square feet of new office leases and approximately 88,000 square feet of renewal office leases in the second quarter.
Office rental rate were flat on a GAAP basis and declined 4% on a cash basis for new office leases and increased 37% on the GAAP basis, 5% on the cash basis for office renewals.
We collected over 99% of cash and contractual rents during the first quarter, and our rent collections through July are in line with our quarterly trends.
Year-to-date residents have and received over $1 billion of local government rent assistance.
We have provided case studies to demonstrate how we use research to lease and executed those very same strategies successfully today, including investing in our suburban apartments ahead of the pandemic as over 70% of household formation is expected to take place in those markets over the next several years.
And we have the capital to reinvest from our transformative sales as well as having additional value in Watergate 600 to harvest, we maintain our balance sheet strength to allow access to financing the growth and simplified our business model, making it more straightforward to attract investors who were previously concerned by our office exposure.
This represents approximately 2% of 4% same-store multifamily growth in the second half of 2021.
Trove is expected to contribute between $3 million and $3.5 million of 2021 NOI and occupancy is now expected to stabilize near year-end.
Once concessions burn off that are incurred pre-stabilization, we expect Trove to contribute $7 million to $7.5 million of NOI annually, and then grow from there.
Finally, as we've discussed, at least for the balance of this year we expect to retain Watergate 600, the best office asset that we had owned, an estimate that it will contribute between $12 million and $12.5 million of NOI in 2021.
We've also previously disclosed, we closed on the after-sales on July 26 for gross proceeds of $766 million.
We've given notice to redeem the $300 million of 2022 bonds and expect that reduction to occur on or about August 26.
We also are now under definitive agreement to sell our remaining retail assets for $168.3 million, and expect that transaction to close in the third quarter.
We plan to pay down $150 million of Term Loans on or about the timing of closing the retail sales.
Over the balance of the year we expect to acquire $450 million of multifamily assets in the Southeastern markets we are targeting.
We have estimated total transaction costs for the transformation to be approximately $56 million, inclusive of debt breakage costs as we also plan to pay down debt with sales proceeds.
Finally, we reset our dividend to levels we expect to cover in 2022 at a 75% FAD payout ratio or better.
We believe our strategic executions will enable stronger FAD growth going forward as we allocate capital out of office assets that have protracted downtime and a recurring CapEx to NOI burden of 20% and to multifamily assets for which we have maintained high occupancy, excellent collections, and historically required recurring CapEx to NOI of only 6%.
While we may be in the mid to high-5 times net debt to adjusted EBITDA range in the first year after executing these transactions, as we progress to second and third years of multifamily NOI growth, we would aspire to operate in the lower half of the 5 to 6 times range.
Assuming the deleverage plan, we will have very little debt maturing in the near-term, none earlier than 2023 and our equity versus debt ratio is expected to get close to 80% to 20%, which would be very strong.
Prior to redeeming the bonds and completing the sale of retail assets, we currently have approximately $1.35 billion of liquidity, including the full availability of our $700 million line of credit.
And finally, delever to a targeted mid to high-5 times net debt to adjusted EBITDA range, assuming the repayment of debt and the redeployment of cash in the future multifamily investments.
For the balance of 2021, we are focused on allocating capital to our targeted Southeastern markets and taking steps to acquire additional talent and expand our presence in these markets, maintaining our leasing momentum at Watergate 600, scaling our renovation program, and sharpening our pencil as we evaluate our shovel ready development opportunity at Riverside, as well as others in our portfolio, as the market improves.

Summary:
Core FFO of $0.35 per diluted share was at the top end of our guidance range driven by stronger than expected results from both our multifamily and office portfolios.