In 1967, when I was 13 years old and a rock band name The Doors released the song titled Strange days.
And indeed, the next few years after 1967 would bring an extended period of strange days and civil unrest that were orders of magnitude stranger than we've seen thus far during the COVID storm.
Apartment demand is stronger in the market than we expected given the nearly 40 million Americans that have filed for unemployment benefits with an official employment unemployment rate of 11.1%.
We undertook various initiatives, including a frontline bonus paid to our 1,400 on-site team members, and we provided grants to almost 400 Camden associates from our long-established Camden employee emergency relief fund.
We also established a Camden resident relief fund from which we were able to provide grants to 8,200 residents at a time of maximum financial uncertainty in their lives.
At that time, based on the confidence level that we had from our operations and finance teams regarding our projected May and June results, on a scale of one to 10, it was probably a two, not good.
For the second quarter of 2020, effective new leases were down 2.1% and effective renewals were up 2.3% for a blended growth rate of 0.3%.
Our July effective lease results indicate a 2% decline for new leases and a 0.2% growth for renewals for a blended decrease of 0.9%.
Occupancy averaged 95.2% during the second quarter of 2020 compared to 96.1% in the second quarter of 2019.
Today, our occupancy has improved to 95.5%.
In the second quarter, we averaged 3,855 signed leases monthly in our same property portfolio as compared to the second quarter of 2019 when we averaged 4,016 signed leases.
For the second quarter of 2020, we collected 97.7% of our scheduled rents, with 1.1% of our rents in a current deferred rent arrangement and 1.2% delinquent.
This compares to the second quarter of 2019 when we collected 98.6% of our scheduled rents, but with a slightly higher 1.4% delinquency.
The third quarter is off to a strong start with 98.7% of our July 2020 scheduled rents collected, ahead of our collections of 98.4% in July of 2019.
Last night, we reported funds from operations for the second quarter of 2020 of $110.4 million or $1.09 per share, representing a $0.26 per share sequential decrease in FFO from the first quarter of 2020.
As outlined in last night's release, included in this $0.26 sequential quarterly decrease is $0.142 of direct COVID-19-related charges included incurred during the quarter.
After excluding the impact of this aggregate $0.142 per share, sequential FFO decreased $0.12 in the second quarter, resulting primarily from: approximately $0.05 per share in lower same-store net operating income, resulting from a $0.02 per share decrease in revenue from our 90 basis point sequential occupancy decline; a $0.025 per share decrease in revenue, resulting from an increase in bad debt reserves from approximately 45 basis points in the first quarter to approximately 180 basis points in the second quarter; and an approximate $0.005 per share sequential increase in expenses; approximately $0.025 in lower non-same-store development and retail NOI, also resulting from a combination of lower occupancy and higher bad debt reserves; and approximately $0.04 per share in higher interest expense resulting from our April 20 $750 million bond issuance.
As previously mentioned, for same-store, our bad debt as a percentage of rental income increased from approximately 45 basis points in the first quarter to approximately 180 basis points in the second quarter.
During the second quarter, we reserved effectively all of the 1.2% of delinquent rents as bad debt.
Also in the second quarter, we reserved effectively half of the 1.1% of deferred rent arrangements as bad debt.
When a resident moves out owing us money, we have already reserved 100% of the amounts owned as bad debt and there will be no future impact to the income statement.
In the second quarter, for retail, which is not part of same-store, we reserved 100% of all amounts uncollected and not deferred, which totaled approximately $800,000.
For the third quarter of 2020 as compared to the third quarter of 2019, at the midpoint, we expect same-store revenues to decline by 1.6%, driven primarily by lower occupancy, higher bad debt and lower miscellaneous fee income.
We expect expenses to increase by 4.5%, driven primarily by higher property insurance, higher property tax assessments and large property tax refunds received in Atlanta and Houston in the third quarter of 2019.
As a result, we expect NOI at the midpoint to decline by 5%.
We expect FFO per share for the third quarter to be within the range of $1.14 to $1.20.
The midpoint of $1.17 is $0.08 per share better than the $1.09 we reported in the second quarter.
However, after adjusting our second quarter results for the previously discussed $0.14 of COVID-related charges, our $1.17 midpoint for the third quarter is a $0.06 per share sequential decrease, resulting primarily from: a $0.045 per share sequential decline in same-store NOI as a result of a $0.005 per share decrease in revenue, resulting primarily from lower net market rents; and a $0.04 per share increase in sequential expenses, resulting primarily from the typical seasonality of our operating expenses, the timing of certain R&M costs and the timing of certain property tax refunds and assessments; an approximate $0.005 per share decline in non same-store NOI, resulting primarily from the same reasons; and an approximate $0.005 per share increase in sequential interest expense, resulting from our April 20 bond issuance.
As of today, we have approximately $1.4 billion of liquidity comprised of just over $500 million in cash and cash equivalents and no amounts outstanding on our $900 million unsecured credit facility.
At quarter end, we had $185 million left to spend over the next two and half years under our existing development pipeline, and we have no scheduled debt maturities until 2022.
Our current excess cash is invested with various banks, earning approximately 30 basis points.

Summary:
Last night, we reported funds from operations for the second quarter of 2020 of $110.4 million or $1.09 per share, representing a $0.26 per share sequential decrease in FFO from the first quarter of 2020.
We expect FFO per share for the third quarter to be within the range of $1.14 to $1.20.
The midpoint of $1.17 is $0.08 per share better than the $1.09 we reported in the second quarter.