PARSIPPANY, NJ-They didn't really need to bring out the violin player at Marcus & Millichap's day-long multifamily market forum here to warm up the crowd of 400, although they did, during a morning breakfast break. Participants – from large developers to niche players, from lending specialists to housing officials – were mostly making happy sounds all on their own.

“The multi-family market is performing extremely well in New Jersey,” said Hessam Nadji, who oversees research for M & M in a keynote address. Citing the company's latest apartment report, he noted that the vacancy rate in northern New Jersey keeps shrinking, and stands now at 3.1%. Along the waterfront, vacancy is just 1.5%, he said, and where it is highest – in the Newark/Orange/East Essex County market - it is still only 5.5%.

He projected “effective rent growth” of at least 4% for the northern half of the state this year. One caveat, Nadji added: If rental rates keep increasing at this rate, while tenants' incomes generally remain static, “people might start thinking about buying houses again.”

The forum took place at the Parsippany Hilton, and featured an array of speeches and panels – plus entertainment, in the form of the violinist and also a comedy monologue about rental real estate by a broker who is also an actor and played a part in the Academy-Award-winning film, “The Silver Linings Playbook.” (He is Phillip Chorba; he plays a creepy ex-boyfriend of Jennifer Lawrence's character.)

A session concerning capital markets had the cheery title “Nearly Free Money.” Brian Liske of Greystone, Ed Petti of Cantor Commercial Real Estate, Peter Porrarro of Mill Creek and Lacy Rice of Federal Capital Partners all asserted that they expect interest rates on real estate loans to remain very low throughout the year.

On a 10-year loan, they said the rate is averaging about 3.75%, and Liske said the rate can go as low as 3.25% under certain circumstances.

Mark Scott of Livingston-based Commercial Mortgage Capital, an attendee of the event, said his firm had just closed on a $9.75 million refinance for an 82-unit apartment complex in Neptune, with a ten-year term and a rate of 3.75%.

A panel of specialists in “value-add” projects, in which developers acquire distressed property and improve it to raise value, discussed how the era of low-interest rates has allowed their niche to flourish.

Paul Silverman of the Silverman development company, describe the Hamilton Square mixed-used development of a vacant and boarded-up former hospital building in Jersey City. That project's first phase included 100 condominiums, all of which have now been sold. In addition, 115 rental units will be developed.

Zach Solomon of the Solomon Organization and Adam Merlmelstein of TreeTop Development, both of whose companies focus on rental projects, said the key has become “cashing out” as soon as possible after acquiring and stabilizing a distressed property – and then refinancing at today's low rates – to make significant improvements.

“You are able to get some attractive preprepayments (penalty fees) today,” said Solomon, “which means it makes sense to recapitalize as soon as possible.”

Solomon said it is important to analyze precisely what improvements will raise the value of the property the most, adding that his company has found in recent projects that there is high demand for “wide washers and dryers.”

All five participants in a panel on affordable housing development also gave a thumbs-up to the way things are going in their sector.

Demand for workforce and subsidized housing is unceasing and voracious, said Anthony Marchetta, who heads the state Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency. “We get three-to-four applications for every one we can fund.”

Lara Schwager of Ingerman Properties, which is based in southern New Jersey, said her company has five affordable housing projects under construction – and “there is not a county in the state that doesn't have a need.”

The level of municipal obligation to provide affordable housing is currently in question. The state Supreme Court is currently deliberating a case that will determine whether Gov. Chris Christie's administration can move ahead with a plan to enforce requirements only when towns approve new development.

Also, given continuous federal and state budget restraints, at least one of the panelists – Pennrose Properties' Timothy Henkel – said he had begun to wonder if the tax credits and payment-in-lieu-of-taxes programs that make affordable housing feasible for developers might one day disappear.

For now, though, Henkel and Schwager said they see the affordable housing market continuing to be vital and strong.