He tells GlobeSt.com this small, local firm sold four apartment properties on the lower slope of Queen Ann during that period. The aggregate total sales price for the properties, sold in separate transactions, was $8.66 million.

McQuaid tells GlobeSt.com rents have not been increasing the way Seattle's urban landlords were expecting at the beginning of 2001. The higher vacancies in the Denny Regrade area, he says, are a reflection of a temporary oversupply caused by all the new product that has come on the market there the last few years. Conversely, from McQuaid's vantage point, the apartment markets in lower Queen Anne, Ballard, Green Lake and West Seattle are doing well.

All four Queen Anne properties just sold by Paragon received multiple offers and were under contract within a week of listing. "There haven't been any new (apartment) buildings come on the market on the lower slope of Queen Anne in the last two or three months," says McQuaid, adding, "But, if I had a classic brick to sell there right now, I believe it would sell as quickly and bring the same value as it would have at the start of the year."