P. Scott Stubbs
Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer at Extra Space Storage
Thanks, Joe, and hello, everyone.
As Joe mentioned, we had a good quarter, driven by occupancy gains, G&A savings, and external growth. October-to-date same-store occupancy is 94.3%, an 80-basis-point improvement over last year. In the third quarter, the average new customer move-in rate was negative 9% year-over-year. Due to strong occupancy and performance to date, we are raising the bottom end of the Extra Space same-store revenue guidance by 75 basis points, bringing the midpoint to a positive 0.125%. Despite meaningful savings in controllable expense categories, increases in property taxes have made it necessary for us to raise our expense guidance by 25 basis points. We have also raised the bottom end of our NOI guidance by 75 basis points, bringing the midpoint to negative 1.375%.
The Life Storage same-store revenue improved by 0.4% year-over-year and we saw seasonal declines in occupancy for the Life Storage same-store pool, finishing the quarter at 92.9%. This represents an increase of 200 basis points year-over-year. October occupancy has increased to 93.2%, 210 basis points over last year. For the Life Storage same-store pool, this sequential change in average move-in rate from the second quarter to the third quarter was negative 1%, much better than normal seasonal declines. Lower-than-expected pricing power to new customers in the Life Storage same-store pool has led to the reduction in our revenue expectations for the year.
We have reduced our annual same-store revenue guidance by 50 basis points at the midpoint. This is partially offset by lower controllable expenses for these properties. As a result, we are revising our expense guidance downward by 100 basis points at the midpoint and consequently, we have adjusted Life Storage same-store NOI guidance to a range of negative 1.5% to positive 0.5% for the year. Given the steady volume of bridge loans, we have raised the 2024 average outstanding loan guidance and increased our expected interest income.
We've also lowered our estimates for G&A and increased our tenant reinsurance guidance. Interest expense has been updated to account for higher bridge loan volume and an increase in our acquisition guidance. As a result of these revisions, we've raised the lower end of our FFO guidance by $0.05 per share from $7.95 per share to $8 per share, a modest increase at the midpoint. Our revisions to guidance exclude the impact of Hurricane Milton as we are still assessing the full extent of property damage and tenant insurance claims. We've sustained damage at several REIT and managed properties and three REIT stores remain closed.
As of today, we are currently estimating total property damage and tenant insurance claims to be $10 million or more. Major hurricane costs have historically been added back to our core FFO, therefore, these amounts have not been contemplated in our guidance. We've also seen an increase in rental activity and have paused existing customer rate increases in certain markets. We will report full details related to Hurricane Milton with our fourth quarter earnings.
And with that, Michelle, let's open things up for questions.