Growth was centered in both [inaudible] commercial real estate both non-owner occupied as well as owner occupied and commercial and industrial lending. Linked quarter growth exceeded $10.1 million, a contraction in construction loans was primarily related to the conversion to permanent financing and some projects funding as expected with insurance and other long-term financers.
Several unfunded construction commitments were also boarded during the quarter that will fund up in coming quarters. Also, year-end loan growth was somewhat muted by an approximately $7 million and expected year-end closings that were pushed into the first quarter of 2015 for various reasons. Overall, loan growth occurred in all markets except for Seattle where pay-offs continued.
First quarter, the loan pipelines remain solid suggesting continued net loan growth similar to that experienced in the fourth quarter. We remain in an intensely competitive pricing environment, yet again our pricing disciplines have help to sustain our net interest margins.
It is important for you to know that the bank held firm to its disciplined credit standards of quality first followed by profitability and then growth, and elected not to originate or refinance specific projects whose recently reviewed cash outlooks did not meet internal standards.
At year-end, the dental portfolio remain steady with the previous quarter’s end at $306.4 million and represented 29.3% of our total loans. As of December 31st, 2014, our national dental loans totaled 48% of that portfolio or $146.9 million, which represented a 14% increase over last year-end.
Referral opportunities from trusted sources let the bank to expand its footprint to 35 states during the quarter. While competition for dental acquisition loans is expected to continue, we expect to see net growth in coming quarters.
As of December 31st, 2014, our non-dental healthcare banking portfolio grew 13.7% over year-end 2013 to $70.3 million. The majority of this expansion continued to be in veterinary lending both acquisition and owner-occupied financing. The bank continues to evaluate a careful and deliberate expansion in veterinary lending to other states due to the continued strength of the credit metrics.
Net charge-offs for the year were only 0.01%. And total delinquency were still reasonable at 0.63%. We continue to evaluate other medical segments particularly optometry and expect to further expand the healthcare segment during 2015.
Finally, I’m pleased to report that average core deposits increased $45.6 million during the fourth quarter or 4.4%. Growth was experienced in both large and small depositors, those under $1 million, but the predominance of the growth was with our larger depositors.
It is important to note that all market showed solid growth with the Seattle market expanding 5.73% at period end. Deposit pipelines for all markets also remain solid. This suggest strong deposits that may continue into the first quarter of 2015, which is somewhere contrary to our typical seasonal pattern of the positive run-off in the first half of the year. That concludes my comments. I’ll now turn the presentation back to Roger Busse.
Roger Busse – President & Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Casey. Our acquisition of Capital Pacific Bank remains on schedule and we continue to expect to close the transaction this quarter. We received conformation that the SEC will wave review. Regulatory application has been filed and we expect to receive word by month end.
