While properties that come to market in high-barrier-to-entry locations, like Bergen County, NJ, remain rare, Uranowitz says investors are looking for well-located, underperforming urban, suburban and rural properties with mass transit access and lifestyle services like dry cleaners, grocery stores and shopping centers, restaurants and leisure/recreational venues.

Common business plans include the implementation of renovation programs to reposition these properties, rendering them more competitive while allowing investors to realize a greater return on their initial investment, says Uranowitz.

“With homeownership still so far out of reach or undesirable for a majority of the population, renting has been and will continue to be the new normal,” says Uranowitz. “Millennials – who experienced the housing crisis of their parents' generation – also are joining the renter pool and setting down roots, strengthening an already fortified tenant base of hard-working families and empty nesters.”

The most active markets are New Jersey's northern municipalities and its Gold Coast, and Eastern Pennsylvania/South Jersey. These are among the most stable apartment-rental markets in the nation and offer a high concentration of multi-family properties built 30 to 40 years ago. Despite a rising number of planned construction projects in both regions that have yet to be built, the tenant base is diverse enough to solidify high occupancy rates across the board.

“New product enhances the overall posture of neighborhoods and cities for all residents of varying socioeconomic backgrounds, especially those who are priced out of Philadelphia or Manhattan,” says Uranowitz.

Even in the wake of the Superstorm Sandy disaster, Gebroe-Hammer reports multi-family trading activity in shore communities like Asbury Park and Lakewood is heating up. “The re-emerging economy and revitalization in these areas are drawing investors, particularly those who are experienced in repositioning properties,” says Uranowitz.

CORRECTION, 8/11/2014: An earlier version of this story included a headline describing the 67 multifamily sales with an incorrect dollar value of $53 million. That amount refers to the dollar value of GF sales in the month of June.