Occupancy expense was down $0.1 million for the linked quarters and $0.2 million lower for the first quarter of 2022 as compared to the same quarter last year. We closed five branch facilities in the second quarter of 2021 which impacted the decrease for the year-over-year quarterly comparison.
Other noninterest expense decreased $3.5 million, or 37%, in the first quarter of 2022 as compared to the fourth quarter of 2021 and was $0.6 million, or 8% lower than the first quarter of 2021. The primary reason for the decrease in both the linked quarters and the year-over-year quarterly comparison was lower professional services expense, primarily due to lower legal fees.
The Company's effective tax rate was 27.0% in the first quarter of 2022 relative to 24.2% in the fourth quarter of 2021 and 25.5% for the first quarter of 2021. The increase in the effective tax rate for the first quarter of 2022 is due to tax credits and tax-exempt income representing a smaller percentage of total taxable income.
Balance Sheet Summary
The $47.8 million, or 1% increase in total assets during the first quarter of 2022, is primarily a result of a $51.7 million increase in investment securities, due mostly to the purchase of collateralized loan obligations.
Gross loan balances remained relatively flat during the first quarter of 2022 with an overall 0.3% change. The net change did have some offsetting components with the larger fluctuations being a $44.0 million decline in mortgage warehouse line utilization, a $25.8 million decrease in non-owner occupied commercial real estate, and a $16.8 million decrease in PPP loans. These declines were mostly offset by a $109.4 million increase in 1-4 family mortgage loans due to purchases of high-quality jumbo mortgage loans. The Company’s regulatory commercial real estate concentration ratio decreased to 234% at March 31, 2022 as compared to 248% at December 31, 2021.
Regarding line utilization, unused commitments, excluding mortgage warehouse and consumer overdraft lines, were $224.4 million at March 31, 2022, compared to $242.3 million at December 31, 2021. Total utilization excluding mortgage warehouse and consumer overdraft lines was 61% at March 31, 2022, compared to 61% at December 31, 2021. Mortgage warehouse utilization was 16% at March 31, 2022, as compared to 28% at December 31, 2021.
As expected, PPP loans continue to decline as borrowers receive forgiveness on these loans. There were 160 loans for $15.0 million outstanding at March 31, 2022, compared to 438 loans for $31.8 million at December 31, 2021.
In addition to an expanded investment in agricultural lending with the recent opening of our Templeton loan production office, as described above, the real estate and mortgage warehouse teams are experiencing a build-up of existing pipelines and the boarding of new customer relationships.
Deposit balances grew by $83.4 million, or 3%, during the first quarter of 2022 to $2.9 billion at March 31, 2022. Core non-maturity deposits increased $83.6 million, or 3%, for the first three months of 2022, while customer time deposits declined by $0.2 million. There was no change in brokered deposits during the quarter. Overall noninterest-bearing deposits as a percent of total deposits decreased slightly to 38.6% at March 31, 2022, compared to 39.0% at December 31, 2021, and increased from 35.8% at March 31, 2021. Other interest-bearing liabilities of $192.3 million at March 31, 2022, include $107.8 million of customer repurchase agreements, $49.2 million in subordinated debt, and $35.3 million in trust preferred securities.
The Company continues to have substantial liquidity. At March 31, 2022, and December 31, 2021, the Company had the following sources of primary and secondary liquidity (dollars in thousands):
| | | | | | |
Primary and secondary liquidity sources | | | March 31, 2022 | | | December 31, 2021 |
Cash and cash equivalents | | $ | 253,534 | | $ | 257,528 |
Unpledged investment securities | | | 861,857 | | | 806,132 |
Excess pledged securities | | | 40,403 | | | 47,024 |