Apartments Not Selling: Apartment brokers didn’t need...

Apartments Not Selling: Apartment brokers didn’t need a survey to tell them that business was bad in 1991 and probably won’t be much better in 1992. Nonetheless, Brad Turek, who focuses on apartment properties for C.B. Commercial Real Estate Group’s Anaheim office, put together some cold, hard statistics.

In Orange County last year, there were only 24 sales of apartment buildings with 20 or more units, Turek calculated. That’s down 67% from 1990 and 78% from 1988, when activity was at its peak.

Sales prices tumbled as well. The average sales price per apartment unit in 1991 was $68,400, compared to $76,292 in 1990. High vacancy rates have whittled rents, which determine the value of the complex.

However, the picture might improve over the next few years, Turek said. “With new construction at a standstill and the population continuing to increase, demand eventually will overtake supply,” he said.