For example, private buyers made up 69% of the market last year; pension funds and public companies comprised 22%; and REITs accounted for 9%. Foreign investment was shut out.

Although investment sales in 2000 were off nearly 50% from 1998 levels, Robert W. Miller, senior vice president in the Orlando office of CB Richard Ellis, tells GlobeSt.com, "Orlando's multihousing market is fundamentally sound." He says the area's diverse economic base created 41,400 new jobs last year, up 4.5%, and that's why he remains bullish on this market.

"Favorable rent trends and value appreciation result from the increasing demand for rental housing," Miller says. "Demand, in turn, is as robust in Orlando as any city in the Southeast due to the exceptional job and population growth." But the investment sales numbers from 2000 are nothing to pop corks over, he says. The average price-per-unit column was the only healthy barometer.