EAST ORANGE, IRVINGTON, AND NEWARK, NJ—Four separate multifamily properties totaling 150 units sold for a combined $18.35 million. The properties, which range from small-to-mid-sized urban low-rises to suburban garden-style complexes, were located throughout the East and West Essex submarkets where the average asking rent is $1,490. Gebroe-Hammer Associates brokered the deals.

“Essex County ranks third overall in the North Jersey metro – behind Hudson and Bergen Counties – in terms of its concentration of speculative apartment space, which continues to be in high investor demand yet short supply of for-sale product,” says David Oropeza, Gebroe-Hammer's managing director. “Broken into two separate submarkets, East Essex encompasses East Orange, Irvington and Newark and is larger while West Essex is smaller and more suburban with municipalities such as Livingston, the Caldwells and Fairfield.”

In East Orange, Oropeza closed the sale of Hillcrest Court, a 45-unit building at 268 Prospect St. Built in 1960 and continually updated, the three-story property is located less than a mile from the Brick Church and Watsessing Rail Stations. “In the multifamily sector, buyers have returned to the 'location, location, location' investment mantra as long as properties are accompanied by 'transit, transit, transit' and solid walk scores,” says Oropeza, a 31-year multifamily brokerage veteran who is Gebroe-Hammer's East Orange market specialist.