cash and cash equivalents of $24.3 million. Total liabilities increased $21.2 million, or 1.22%, from $1.74 billion at December 31, 2020 to $1.76 billion at March 31, 2021. The increase was primarily due to an increase in deposits of $29.6 million partially offset by a decrease in advances from the FHLB of $5 million. Deposit growth benefited from new customer offerings, including business accounts utilized by borrowers under the Paycheck Protection Program, and borrowings focused on extending duration during the lower rate environment. The Company expects our balance sheet to decrease in size as customers withdraw the cash proceeds from PPP loans, and as PPP loans are forgiven.
Cash and cash equivalents decreased $24.3 million to $292.1 million at March 31, 2021 from $316.4 million at December 31, 2020. The decrease was primarily due to cash being used to fund investment purchases.
Gross loans held for investment increased $13.6 million, or 1.06%, to $1.30 billion at March 31, 2021 from $1.28 billion at December 31, 2020. The most significant drivers were: increases in two loan segments, multifamily and commercial unsecured (PPP). For the three months ended March 31, 2021 there were $69.0 million in originations of multifamily loans partially offset by $23.0 million of payoffs and amortization, and $32.3 million of originations in commercial unsecured (PPP loans) partially offset by $6.0 million in payoffs and amortization. Offsetting these increases were net decreases in one-to-four family and construction loans. The decrease in one-to-four family loans was primarily driven by $48.9 million in payoffs and amortization partially offset by $6.2 million in originations. The decrease in construction loans was primarily driven by $12.2 million in payoffs and amortization partially offset by $3.3 million in originations.
Securities available-for-sale increased $29.9 million, or 12.21%, to $274.5 million at March 31, 2021 from $244.6 million at December 31, 2020. During the three months ended March 31, 2021, additional high quality liquid assets, primarily corporate bonds and residential mortgage-backed securities, were purchased as interest rates rose. No securities were sold or liquidated during the three months ended March 31, 2021.
Total deposits increased $29.6 million, or 2.18%, to $1.39 billion at March 31, 2021 from $1.36 billion at December 31, 2020. The increase included checking and savings account increases of $62.7 million, or 9.9%, to $701.4 million at March 31, 2021 from $638.7 million at December 31, 2020. This was offset by time deposit decreases of $33.0 million, or 4.6%, to $684.4 million at March 31, 2021 from $717.4 million at December 31, 2020. These changes resulted in the ratio of time deposits to total deposits decreasing from 52.9% at December 31, 2020 to 49.4% at March 31, 2021, and a blended deposit cost of funds decline to 0.86% at March 31, 2021 from 0.92% at December 31, 2020.
The Company had $324.4 million of borrowings at March 31, 2021, compared to $329.4 million of borrowings at December 31, 2020. Our borrowings consisted solely of Federal Home Loan Bank of New York advances. Of that total, $109 million of the borrowings are associated with longer-dated swap agreements.
Shareholders’ total equity decreased by $0.9 million, or 0.44%, to $204.7 million at March 31, 2021 compared to $205.6 million at December 31, 2020.
The decrease was due primarily to a net loss of $0.7 million for the three months ended March 31, 2021, coupled with the recognition of $0.7 million of conversion related costs, offset by an increase in AOCI from a loss of $1.0 million as of December 31, 2020 to a loss of $0.4 million at March 31, 2021.
Comparison of Operating Results for the Three Months Ended March 31, 2021 and March 31, 2020
General. Net income increased $10.6 million, to a net loss of $0.7 million for the three months ended March 31, 2021, compared to net loss of $11.3 million for the three months ended March 31, 2020. The increase was due primarily to a $12.8 million valuation allowance as certain Bank property was reclassified to held for sale coupled with a write down of $1.4 million of REO in the three months ended March 31, 2020 with no comparable events in the three months ended March 31, 2021. This was coupled with a decrease in the provision for loan losses of $2.3 million, from $1.5 million for the three months ended March 31, 2020 to a release of $0.8 million for the three months ended March 31, 2021.
Interest Income. Interest income decreased $2.5 million, or 15.2%, to $13.9 million for the three months ended March 31, 2021 from $16.4 million for the three months ended March 31, 2020. The decrease was due to a decrease of $2.0 million, or 13.7%, in interest income from loans as the average balance of loans decreased $129.8 million to $1.29 billion and the average yield on loans decreased 21 basis points to 3.85% for the three months ended March 31, 2021 from 4.06% for the three months ended March 31, 2020. These were partially offset by increases in the average balances of mortgage-backed securities, investment securities, and other interest-earning assets of $23.9 million, $3.6 million and $156.3 million, respectively.
Interest Expense. Interest expense decreased $1.9 million, or 30.6%, to $4.3 million for the three months ended March 31, 2021 compared to $6.3 million for the three months ended March 31, 2020, due to a decrease of $0.1 million in interest expense on borrowings, coupled with a decrease of $1.8 million in interest expense on deposits. Average deposit balances rose to $1.33 billion at a weighted average interest rate of 0.86% during the three months ended March 31, 2021 compared to $1.26 billion at 1.49% during the three months ended March 31, 2020.
Net Interest Income. Net interest income decreased $0.6 million, or 5.7%, to $9.6 million for the three months ended March 31, 2021 from $10.2 million for the three months ended March 31, 2020, as a result of a decrease in interest expense and a decrease in interest income.
Provision for Loan Losses. Provisions for loan losses are charged to operations to establish an allowance for loan losses at a level necessary to absorb probable and incurred losses inherent in our loan portfolio that are both probable and reasonably estimable at the date of the consolidated financial statements. In evaluating the level of the allowance for loan losses, management analyzes several qualitative loan portfolio risk factors including, but not limited to, management’s ongoing review and grading of loans, facts and issues related to specific loans, historical loan loss and delinquency experience, trends in past due and non-accrual loans, existing risk characteristics of specific loans or loan pools, the fair value of underlying collateral, current economic conditions and other qualitative and quantitative factors which could affect potential credit losses.
After an evaluation of these factors, the Company recorded a release of provision for loan losses of $0.8 million for the three months ended March 31, 2021 compared to a provision of $1.5 million for the three months ended March 31, 2020. The release during the three months ended March 31, 2021 was driven by declining balances in portfolio segments with respectively higher applied loss rates, and declining non-performing assets from December 31, 2020.
As the pandemic emerged in March of 2020, the Company increased its allowance for loan losses by $1.5 million to $16.0 million as of March 31, 2020. As the economic effects of the pandemic continued to unfold, the Company increased its allowance by another $1.25 million as of June 30th, 2020 to $17.25 million, where it remained through September 30th, 2020 despite loan balances declining due to increased loan payoffs driven by record-low interest rates. Subsequently, credit quality continued to stabilize, and by December 31st, 2020, the Company had reduced its provision slightly, to $16.96 million. The first quarter of 2021 saw continued strengthening of credit quality, as seen in the declining delinquency rates and balances of non-performing loans. Total non-performing loans increased from $3.9 million at March 31, 2020 to $12.9 million at December 31, 2020, and subsequently decreased $0.5 million to $12.4 million at March 31, 2021.
37