"We are very optimistic by what we see," agrees Cushman & Wakefield principal Biria St. John. "It's a very deep pipeline." The multifamily team led by St. John and partner Simon Butler orchestrated $1.27 billion in transactions in 2007—up from $750 million the previous year—capped by the $160.9 million sale of Windsor Gardens in Norwood. Despite that frenetic pace, C&W is already ahead of 2007's launch with close to $400 million preparing to hit the sales block, relays St. John.

The demise of condo converters that eased multifamily pricing for a time has been overtaken by a cadre of domestic pension funds eager to buy into the rapidly improving apartment market, according to industry observers. "The fundamentals are very strong," says Robinson, as evidenced by a decline in concessions to lure renters. Robust, supply constrained markets such as Cambridge have almost completely eliminated free rent and other concessions, he says, while St. John attributes the solid showing partly to the subprime mortgage morass that has made home buying more difficult. Income projections for apartments in New England are already being calculated upwards as part of the investment sales process, says St. John. That could cause friction for those capital sources anticipating an adjustment in pricing in light of the commercial real estate slowdown.

Many pension funds are demanding higher returns, says St. John, but the mounting wave of capital could limit clout for multifamily suitors. "There is a lot of money trying to get out into the marketplace," he says, and lower interest rates should only contribute to that pool. Robinson puts the average capitalization rate for class A apartments in the region in 2007 at 5.1% and predicts an adjustment upward slightly by 100 to 150 basis points, but he concurs that could be impacted by investor demand. In any event, ARA New England hopes to increase its pace of sales from an average of 15 in the past two years to possibly 20 in 2008. Given the solid beginning, Robinson expressed optimism of achieving the growth projections, although he declined to specify details of the current sales.