“Sandy Springs is adjacent to the Buckhead market, so it’s a very popular area in terms of multi-family rental,” John Akin, senior vice president of Carter, a commercial real estate firm in Atlanta, tells GlobeSt.com. “We’ve seen a lot of interest from investors coming in across Midtown, Buckhead, and Perimeter.”

Bascom currently owns and operates 10 properties totaling 3,378 units in metro Atlanta. The firm’s last three acquisitions included a class A asset in bankruptcy, a class C foreclosure needing extensive renovation, and Park at Dunwoody at a foreclosure auction purchase.

“We had a perfect storm in Atlanta,” Sanderson says. “Atlanta has been fighting both supply and demand issues. Many tenants started doubling up, or leaving Atlanta. But we’re expecting to see some of the better quality submarkets improve first. We are betting this submarket will rebound more quickly than some others.”

Although the market may look worse before it looks better, renewed job creation and new household formations will continue to stabilize the Atlanta apartment market and set the stage for steady improvement in fundamentals in 2011, Marcus & Millichap reports.

Marketwide vacancy declined for the second straight quarter on continuing strong demand for Class A units. Vacancy rates inched down 10 basis points to 11% in the third quarter.