In terms of international capital, overseas multifamily investors continue to seek out quality assets and have recently been flocking to top tier secondary markets such as Atlanta, Charlotte and Phoenix, according to the report. Okland says, “Moving forward, there will be a continued emphasis among capital sources for value-add opportunities and growing demand for core and opportunities.”

On the debt front, multifamily maturities are estimate to rise to $114.7 billion in 2017, according to the report. The firm expects multifamily debt outstanding to grow to $1.2 billion as other lenders have filled the void left by a slowing CMBS market. Okland predicts, “While there will be pockets of momentary oversupply in certain portions of submarkets across some of the country's strong growth markets, absorption will continue.

ATLANTA—A lack of multifamily portfolio and entity-level transactions in the first quarter of 2017 contributed to a slow start to the year. However, multifamily sales activity is anticipated to be stronger during the second half of the year. That's according to ARA Newmark's Q1 2017 Multihousing Market Overview.

Yields held steady at 5.4% nationally, yet cap rates in tertiary markets have compressed over the past 24 months as more investors have moved into these markets in search of greater returns, the report reveals. And while annualized effective rent growth moderated to 2.1% nationally, western markets with heavy ties to technology employments saw the strongest gains.

“Cap rates remain steady,” Blake Okland, ARA Newmark vice chairman and Head of US Multifamily, tells GlobeSt.com. “Cap rates will potentially go lower throughout the year due to more demand for product than there is supply of available properties.” (Three factors are slowing down Atlanta office construction.

ARA Newmark predicts over 370,000 units are expected to be delivered nationally in 2017. However, in the past 12 months the majority of new supply has been concentrated in the top 15 markets. (Check out these seven ways to cut multifamily costs now.)

In terms of international capital, overseas multifamily investors continue to seek out quality assets and have recently been flocking to top tier secondary markets such as Atlanta, Charlotte and Phoenix, according to the report. Okland says, “Moving forward, there will be a continued emphasis among capital sources for value-add opportunities and growing demand for core and opportunities.”

On the debt front, multifamily maturities are estimate to rise to $114.7 billion in 2017, according to the report. The firm expects multifamily debt outstanding to grow to $1.2 billion as other lenders have filled the void left by a slowing CMBS market. Okland predicts, “While there will be pockets of momentary oversupply in certain portions of submarkets across some of the country's strong growth markets, absorption will continue.