Private investor Ioan Ruzmir of Morton Grove, IL was the buyer of the property, which is located at 4224 N. 12th St. just north of Indian School Road and south of Camelback Road. Nearby amenities include the Park Central retail center, Phoenix College and Camelback Colonnade. The complex is within a half-mile of the Squaw Peak Parkway.

Even though a number of apartment and condominium projects are going up in the vicinity, most of those are class A properties and don't directly compete with the Twelfth Street Villas Apartments. The complex was built in 1956, renovated in 1990 and appeals to working-class renters, McClure says. The current monthly rents, which the new owner expects to raise in the near future, are $345 for a studio, $400 for a one bedroom and $500 for a two-bedroom apartment. "All those factors combined to make it a property that a lot of investors were eager to run at," McClure says.

After a slow first quarter, the pace of apartment transactions has picked up through the mid-year mark. There have been 88 apartment sales in the Valley, totaling $428 million, through the end of June, a volume that compares well to the 112 closed through mid-2000, which was a record year for sales. Last year, sales totaled more than $1 billion in the Valley.

Private investors Saul Caprio and Jill Clark, both of Tigard, OR, were the sellers. The Phoenix office of RE/MAX, with brokers Doug Groppenbacher, Hank Daugs and McClure, represented the Oregon sellers while Ben Rozmir of Century 21's Phoenix office acted on the buyer's behalf.