COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE : Sales of Large Apartment Complexes Up 43% in 1st Half of ‘93, Report Says

For the first six months of this year, sales of Orange County apartments of more than 20 units are up 43%, according to a report by Brad Turek, an apartment broker in Newport Beach.

However, sales are still down 60% from 1988 levels, the peak of activity during the past decade. Most of the sales this year were bank-owned properties. Fourteen transactions were for buildings of less than 50 units, seven were 50 to 100 units and two sales involved buildings of more than 100 units.

“Apartment prices are the lowest they’ve been in eight years,” Turek reported, noting that interest rates are also at historically low levels and that more buyers have entered the market, which has boosted sales activity.

“The result may be that we have reached a turning point in the apartment market,” his report said. “If the Orange County economy stabilizes, rents stabilize and interest rates remain low, apartment prices may go up.”

Sounds like a lot of “ifs.”