Apartment Market Perks Up

ATLANTA-Investors continue to scour the metro area for solid multifamily product even as overall vacancy rates are expected to rise to a projected 11% this year, according to a new market analysis by Marcus & Millichap.

North Gwinnett County and the Roswell/Alpharetta submarkets will lead the recovery as tenant demand returns and wide-spread concessions gradually disappear, the Encino, CA-based brokerage and investment house predicts. “After enduring three years of deteriorating apartment market fundamentals, Atlanta-area apartment owners will welcome the return of positive momentum” in 2004, says Hessam Nadji, managing director, research services at Marcus & Millichap.

Nadji says “continued improvement in the local economy, especially in the hard-hit sectors of information technology and professional and business services, will enable owners in some submarkets, particularly in the northern suburbs, to benefit from falling vacancy and improving net operating incomes.”