Capitol reform
Metro Washington, D.C., historically one of the country's top-tier apartment markets, has turned stellar this year. With its strong and reliable employment record, beefed up recently by the newly arrived Obama administration, the market has provided some apartment REITs with surprisingly good news at a time when bad news is more prevalent.
"On the brighter side, the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area is performing ahead of expectations. The area has the lowest unemployment rate and the most favorable job outlook of any AvalonBay market," Leo Horey, VP of operations for the fourth largest apartment REIT in the country with a mostly bi-coastal portfolio of around 50,000 units, said at the end of April. "While supply as a percentage of total inventory remains high, at roughly 1.5 percent, apartment deliveries are being absorbed."
In fact, occupancy averaged approximately 96.7 percent in the first quarter of 2009 at the company's nearly 6,000-unit portfolio in the D.C. metro, with year-over-year rental revenue growth remaining positive in Q1 and the rate of decline in rental rates actually improving throughout the quarter, he said.
Three months later, AvalonBay CEO Bryce Blair told an audience at the company's presentation at NAREIT's conference in
