John Corrigan
Analyst · Evercore
Thank you, Dave, and good morning, everyone.
Beginning with revenue growth. As Dave mentioned, we are off to a strong start for 2019. For our same-home portfolio during the first quarter, we achieved a 95.5% average occupied days percentage, up 70 basis points from the first quarter of 2018. Average monthly realized rent was up 3.2%, resulting in a quarter-over-quarter increase in same-home core revenues of 4.2%.
Turning to operating expenses. First quarter 2019 core property operating expenses were up 2.1% year-over-year, largely driven by a 4.8% increase in property taxes, which was in line with our expectations, offset in part by decreases in R&M, turnover and property management expenses. Our first quarter 2019 cost to maintain a home, including R&M and turnover cost plus recurring capital expenditures, totaled $487, down slightly from last year. Although we continue to see inflationary pressures, this decrease was driven by improved retention and reduced vacant home inventory, combined with last year's above-average expenditure levels. As a reminder, this year's cost to maintain a home includes higher cost related to preventative maintenance as our program has expanded year-over-year.
In summary, it was a strong operational start to the year. We are on track with the expectations we laid out last quarter. We're carrying positive momentum into the spring leasing season with strong April same-home average occupied days of 95.8%, up 60 basis points compared to last year, and blended rental rate spreads for April of 4.9%, an increase of approximately 20 basis points compared to last year.
Turning to growth. As Dave mentioned, we have increased our focus on our build-for-rent programs as the best risk-adjusted opportunity for accretive growth. This initiative adds new assets that are in demand and provides better near- and long-term economics. During the first quarter of 2019, we added 320 homes for a total investment, including renovations, of approximately $85 million. 101 of these homes totaling $26 million were added through our build-for-rent programs. For 2019, we remain on track to take $300 million to $500 million of homes into inventory, with about 80% expected to be from our build-for-rent pipeline and the rest from our other channels. We expect these additions to be weighted toward the back half of 2019. Further, as previously noted, we expect to invest an additional $200 million to $400 million into our development pipeline for future year deliveries.
Turning to dispositions. We continue to strategically prune our portfolio where it makes sense for operational reasons and recycle capital into opportunities with better long-term returns. At the end of the first quarter, we had approximately 1,800 homes held for sale, which we expect to generate between $350 million and $400 million of net proceeds over the course of this year and next. During the first quarter, we sold 180 homes for net proceeds of $33 million.
Now I will turn the call over to Chris.