DATA POINTS: Despite Slight Bite From Buyers, Sellers Pull Back

NEW YORK CITY-Apartment investment activity hit its highest point all year in April, but is by no means near last year’s levels. Some $900 million in properties traded, bringing the year-to-date total to $2.8 billion. That brings the average monthly volume to an “anemic” $700 million, according to Real Capital Analytics, which recently issued the study.

Meanwhile, after months of putting their properties on the block, sellers are increasingly deciding to hold onto their assets. Whereas new offerings were triple the number of closed deals all year, at $10.4 billion, in April, just $1.8 billion in assets were put up for sale–a two-to-one ratio.

On the bright side, it’s the second month in a row that fewer newly distressed assets have come onto the marketplace–$1.1 billion in April, and $8.3 billion for the first four months of the year. Still, the volume of distressed assets in the apartment sector is the second highest among all property types, with mid and high-rise and low-income properties seeing the highest rates of default among their counterparts. Further, the $14.4 billion worth of communities in potential distress or “unresolved trouble” looms over any positive steps the sector may experience.