Our investment portfolio has an average life of 4.2 years with a projected cash flow of $83.4 million coming due in the next 12 months. Our year-end deposits totaled $1.3 billion, representing an increase of $6.8 million this quarter. Interest checking and money market deposits and certificates of deposit grew by $25.6 million and $13.9 million, respectively, this quarter, while non-interest-bearing checking and savings accounts declined by $32.7 million. Our loan-to-deposit ratio totaled $71.3 million at December 31st, which remains low, giving us ample liquidity to fund new loan growth. We operate in stable markets throughout the State of Kansas, which provide us predictable liquidity through access to retail, commercial and municipal deposits.
In addition, we continue to maintain and manage multiple other sources of liquidity, including the Federal Home Loan Bank and Federal Reserve Bank lines of credit and Fed Funds Agreements. Combined, they provide approximately $244 million of additional borrowing capacity as of December 31st. Our investment portfolio also has unpledged securities available as collateral for additional borrowings. Stockholders’ equity increased to $126.9 million at December 31, 2023, and our book value grew to $23.17 per share at December 31st, compared to $19.99 per share at September 30th. The increase in stockholders’ equity mainly resulted from the decrease in net unrealized losses on our investment securities portfolio mentioned above. Our consolidated and bank regulatory capital ratios as of December 31, 2023, are strong and exceed the regulatory levels considered to be well capitalized.
The bank’s leverage ratio was 8.7% at December 31, 2023, while the total risk-based capital ratio was 13.7%. Landmark’s return on average equity was 10.7% for the year ended 2023. Now let me turn the call over to Raymond to review highlights of our loan portfolio and credit risk outlook.
Raymond McLanahan: Thank you, Mark, and good morning to everyone on the call this morning. As mentioned earlier, we enjoyed continued loan growth throughout the quarter, mainly due to increases in our residential mortgage and agricultural loan portfolios. Gross loans outstanding at the end of the year totaled $948.7 million, a representative increase of $11.2 million or 4.8% on an annualized basis from the previous quarter. Our residential mortgage loan portfolio increased $12.97 million this quarter, largely the result of continued demand for our adjustable rate loan products. Additionally, our agricultural loan portfolio increased $5.12 million. New originations to existing customers contributed to over half of this increase.
Turning to our credit quality, by December 31, 2023, non-performing loans, mainly consisting of non-accrual loans, totaled $2.4 million, representing a decrease of $2 million from the prior quarter. The decrease in non-accrual loans was primarily due to a credit upgrade of a $1.4 million relationship, which returned to accruing status and the payoff of a non-accrual loan of $450,000. Total foreclosed real estate was relatively unchanged at $928,000 as we continue to actively pursue the sale of these properties. The balance of past due loans between 30 days and 89 days still accruing interest decreased $4.6 million this quarter and totaled $1.6 million or 0.17% of gross loans. Much has been written lately about the state of commercial real estate lending across the banking industry.
At Landmark, we believe in banking relationships, not transactions. Because of the importance that we place on customer relationships, the majority of our commercial real estate portfolio is comprised of owner-occupied properties, which we believe have stable, low risk profiles. The asset quality of our CRE portfolio remains strong and we will work hard to keep it that way by staying disciplined in our credit culture, our vision and our approach to relationship banking. We recorded net loan charge-offs of $362,000 during the fourth quarter of 2023, compared to net loan charge-offs of $67,000 during the fourth quarter of 2022. Our allowance for credit losses totaled $10.6 million and ended the quarter at 1.12% of gross loans. Asset quality at Landmark has remained excellent over the last few years and we remain focused on maintaining strong metrics.
The current economic landscape in Kansas is healthy. The preliminary seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for Kansas as of December 31st was unchanged from the previous quarter at 2.8% according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In terms of housing, inventory levels of available homes in Kansas continue to impact home prices. The Kansas Association of REALTORS President recently commented that sale prices are continuing to rise even as sales activity has slowed. Home prices in November increased 5% in Kansas compared to the same time last year, while prices in the Midwest increased 4.9% compared to last year. Home sales in Kansas fell by 7% in November compared to the same period of last year. With that, I thank, everyone, and I’ll now turn the call back over to Michael.
