MINNETONKA, MN-The writing was on the wall for a drop in medical office building sales volume during 2013. After all, 2012 was a record-setting year, with sales totaling $5.52 billion, according to statistics from real estate research firm Real Capital Analytics Inc. That figure only included MOB transactions topping $5 million.

In addition, 2012 ended with quite a bang, as sales in Q4 totaled $1.95 billion, the largest quarterly sales total since RCA began accumulating such data back in 2001.

Professionals involved in healthcare real estate cited at least a couple of reasons why they believed the MOB sales volume would drop significantly from Q4 of 2012 to Q1 of 2013. For one, a significant capital gains tax break that included MOB sales sunsetted at the end of 2012, meaning owners thinking about selling would most certainly try to do so before the end of the year.

For another, MOB sales typically build throughout a given year, meaning fourth quarters often see significantly higher volumes than first quarters.

Even so, Q1 2013 ended up with a respectable total MOB sales volume. According to RCA, sales were $1.17 billion, down 40% from Q4. However, the Q1 results represented a 16.7% gain over Q1 2012.

According to RCA's exclusive data, which it shares with Healthcare Real Estate Insights, the average cap rate for MOB sales during Q1 was 8.1%, quite a bit higher than in Q4, when the average cap rate was 7.6%. The all-time lowest quarterly average cap rate nationwide, as reported by RCA, was 6.9%, which happened several times during 2006 and 2007.

There is perhaps one caveat to the MOB sales volume total for Q1. It involves transactions that took place between Realty Income Corp. and American Realty Capital Trust Inc. Last year, Realty Income Corp. entered an agreement to acquire AR Capital in a stock transaction valued at $2.9 billion. Included in the Q1 report from RCA are more than 35 medical transactions between the two entities totaling more than $380 million.

Some healthcare real estate professionals do not think that such transactions – those that involve company mergers and acquisition activity – should be included in sales volume reports.

John B. Mugford is the Editor of Healthcare Real Estate Insights™, the nation's first and only publication totally dedicated to covering news and trends in healthcare real estate development, financing and investment. For more information, please visit www.HREInsights.com.