Michael D. Lacy
Senior Vice President, Property Operations at UDR
The pace of recovery in our business since the depths of COVID has been incredible and nearly the inverse of what we experienced a year ago. While we expected a positive inflection during the second quarter for our portfolio, in aggregate, the rapid rebound in multifamily demand and core operating trends has surpassed our expectations and led us to raise guidance for a third time in approximately 90 days. First, let me take you through our second quarter results with a focus on key operating trends. Second quarter results came in at the high end of our guidance range with occupancy reaching all-time highs of 97.5% in June. Effective blended lease rate growth accelerating 580 basis points sequentially versus the first quarter and same-store revenue growth improving 180 basis points sequentially.
Strong underlying demand has persisted into July with market rents above year ago levels in all UDR markets. Current market rent growth is a forward-looking indicator of leases to be signed, and this strength gives us confidence that 2021 and 2022 results will continue to benefit from the ongoing recovery. In terms of demand, same-store traffic during the second quarter was well above the comparable 2020 and 2019 periods. This was driven by two primary factors: first, our self-guided tour capabilities have allowed us to accommodate higher levels of traffic; and second, a continued migration by residents back to harder hit urban areas, which is best evidenced by sequential occupancy gains of greater than 200 basis points in both New York and San Francisco during the quarter.
Our 30-day occupancy, which assumes no new leases are signed over the next 30 days currently averages 97% portfolio-wide and compares favorably to the 96% three months ago. Our elevated occupancy has translated into stronger pricing power across all our markets. As such, we are willing to accept somewhat higher near-term turnover to lock in higher rents and further strengthen our future rent roll. During the quarter, sequential improvements in our blended lease rate growth was widespread and averaged 580 basis points higher versus the first quarter. Currently, our weighted average loss to lease is approximately 10% on a gross basis and higher on an effective basis. This is a material improvement versus just a few months ago when our average loss to lease was hovering near two percent and a complete reversal versus the fourth quarter of 2020 when our gain to lease reached six percent.
August and September renewals have averaged seven percent thus far or roughly double what we achieved in the second quarter. For the third quarter, we are forecasting effective blended lease rate growth accelerating to the mid- to high single digits, driven by ongoing strong renewals and effective new lease rate growth portfolio-wide. Additionally, concession pressures continue to abate. Our strategy through the pandemic has been to maintain gross rents and offer upfront concessions to better preserve our rent roll for the anticipated rebound. At peak concession levels during the fourth quarter of 2020, we granted 3.5 to four weeks of concessions on average on new leases. That declined to approximately 2.5 weeks in April and less than half a week on average today.
As each week of concession equals to roughly two percent effective rate growth, we have effectively improved our pricing by six percent since late 2020, on top of market rent. I expect this dynamic to continue throughout the third quarter when we reprice about 1/3 of our portfolio. Moving on. As we discussed on our first quarter call, emergency regulatory restrictions reduced our quarterly total NOI by approximately $8 million to $10 million or $0.03 per share at the highest cohort. Most of this shortfall came through lower collections with a minority and reduced other income and restrictions on renewal rate growth. This is now turning around. First, regarding collections, we've had success being a first mover and working with our residents to access state and local rental assistance programs and obtained reimbursement on accumulated background and prospective rent.
Year-to-date, collections from these programs have totaled approximately $10.4 million, and this is prior to California, the state of Washington and New York contributing much due to their late starts or delays. We currently have another $12 million of applications under review and are optimistic that we can continue to recover delinquent balances. And second, growth has resumed in certain fee income streams. For example, demand for short-term furnished rentals is back to 2019 levels, and we expect our common area rentals to return to 75% of 2019 levels during the third quarter. Fee income now totals approximately $60 million in revenue when annualized, a number similar to 2019 levels.
However, applying a standard growth rate of three percent 2019 fee income would imply a 2021 estimate that should be closer to $65 million. As such, we believe there is additional fee upside as regulatory restrictions continue to sunset across our portfolio. Moving on. Our Next Generation Operating Platform, Version 1.0 has now been fully rolled out to 18 of our 21 markets and over 85% of our roughly 55,000 apartment homes. Our residents have embraced our shift to a self-service model as evidenced by approximately 97% of year-to-date tours being self-guided or touchless. On-site UDR associates now spend five minutes on average with a prospective resident during a property tour versus 55 minutes previously. The widespread introduction of automated self-touring and easy-to-use resident interfaces across our communities has driven average headcount reductions of approximately 40% compared to early 2018 staffing levels, primarily through natural attrition.
Our approach to staffing and the adoption of various technologies establishes a permanent reduction in our cost structure, that helps to neutralize wage inflation and allows our employees to manage our communities more efficiently. To give some hard numbers, at the beginning of 2018, we had one associate for every 31 apartment homes, including corporate employees. Today, we have one associate for every 42 apartment homes and see a path to achieving one associate for every 44 homes managed in the coming quarters. Importantly, these achievements have come in tandem with higher customer service as evidenced by the 24% improvement in our resident satisfaction scores since the formal implementation of Platform 1.0, three years ago.
The efficiencies we can realize through our operating expertise and platform are also central to our acquisition strategy. On the revenue side, the implementation of advanced revenue management capabilities, better-than-expected market rent growth in certain markets and our platform's ability to accommodate more prospective residents on tours have resulted in occupancy and rate growth ahead of our underwriting expectations for our 2020 and 2021 acquisitions. This is especially true for the more than 2,500 homes we have acquired in Florida and Texas since the start of 2020. Our portfolio strategy approach helped to identify attractive growth markets, and I credit Harry and our transaction team for finding communities that optimized our platform capabilities.
Proximity to legacy UDR assets is key to maximizing the benefits our platform provides and realizing outsized yield expansion from our multiple value creation drivers. For example, at the six communities that we have acquired since the fourth quarter of 2020, on-site staffing has been reduced by 30% on average and is tracking to a pro forma 45% reduction on average, while still maintaining a high level of service. In total, we believe our operations first approach is a competitive advantage that should continue to drive strong growth in our legacy portfolio and acquired properties. Finally, I want to thank my colleagues in the field and at corporate for their dedication to the platform vision. UDR has a culture that empowers our associates and we continue to evolve based on your feedback.
Through the team's collective efforts, we are well on track to achieving our original incremental NOI growth target of $15 million to $20 million by 2022 from Platform 1.0 initiatives. As we continue to improve and refine has already been rolled out, I am confident in our ability to generate an additional $10 million to $15 million in run rate NOI by the mid-2020s from the next round of platform-related ideas. In particular, initiatives from Platform 1.5 are designed to improve resident satisfaction, increased retention, reduce days vacant and create a better pricing model that is driven by proprietary, data analytics and heat maps. To my UDR associates listening to this call, you have done a great job of fostering innovation, and I'm excited to work with you as we continue to enhance our platform. Keep up the great results.
And now I'd like to turn the call over to Joe.