Funds from operations (FFO) for 2008 was $1.18 per share including a $0.10 per share one-time gain on early extinguishment of debt. Our annual FFO was reduced by $0.02 in one-time dead-deal costs and by $0.02 due to a loss on the sale of our investment in Auction Rate Securities. Our 2008 FFO also included approximately $0.08 in dilution from equity offerings and $0.06 in lease-up drag. Excluding these items, FFO for the year was $1.26 per share. In total, we generated FFO available to common shareholders of $96.6 million in 2008, compared to $76.6 million in 2007, an increase of 26.1%.
Overall, our total revenue grew to $273.3 million in 2008, up from $238.9 million in 2007. We also increased net income to $46.9 million in 2008, from $36.1 million in 2007. Our performance allowed us to deliver an annualized common dividend of $1.00 per share in 2008, an amount that we will assess on a quarterly basis in 2009. We continued to benefit from our tenant reinsurance program, which improves our overall operating margins while giving our tenants greater peace of mind. As of year-end, 93.6% of new tenants and 48.8% of all tenants insured the valuable items they stored with us through our reinsurance program.
In short, in 2008 we continued to rent units and our properties held their own. Our best-in-class operational systems helped us maximize revenue and occupancy. As with so many other companies, our stock price was down during the year, but even in a highly volatile market, we outperformed the NAREIT Equity Index.
2009: The time is right
The time is right to capture new demand in a shifting market. Much of our demand comes from life changes such as marriage, divorce, birth, death, graduation, job changes and even natural disasters. In addition, self storage is still used consistently by businesses of all sizes. What has changed, especially in the past few months, is that we are serving new types of customers: people facing foreclosure, families and businesses downsizing, baby boomers retiring, often to smaller places; and parents moving in with their adult children.
