Apartment Sales Highest in a Decade

SAN DIEGO-Countywide apartment sales have reached their highest level in a decade, a new brokerage report says, as rents in many areas continue to climb in the double-digit range and demand far outstrips supply.

Multifamily projects with 4,646 units were sold in 265 transactions countywide in the second quarter, the highest level of activity since the second quarter of 1990, according to San Diego-based Burnham Real Estate Services.

Meanwhile, construction activity in the county’s tight apartment marketremains strong, but not nearly strong enough to meet demand from investors and prospective tenants alike. Permits for 1,553 units with a value of $164 millionwere pulled during the second quarter, the third consecutive quarter inwhich builders took out more than 1,500 permits.

The quarter included numerous sales of projects of more than 100 unitsselling at prices of more than $100,000 per unit—-another reflection ofthe strong sales prices that are driving up rents as supply shrinks andinvestors ask more in rent to make their purchases pencil out, the Burnham report says.