Dive Brief:

• Apartment sales volume fell 18% year over year to $8.2 billion in May, according to a report that data firm MSCI Real Assets shared with Multifamily Dive. Sales volume had been growing at a double-digit pace for 11 months before the decline in May. 
• The RCA commercial property price indexes fell 1.1% year over year in May, according to MSCI. While that was an improvement from May 2025, the annualized change in prices from April is down 4.6%. 
• Volume did increase 3% to $3.6 billion for mid- and high-rise properties. However, garden sales dropped 30% to $4.6 billion in May. Single-property sales fell 17% to $6.5 billion, while portfolio and entity-level trades declined 23% to $1.8 billion.

Dive Insight:

Despite the YOY spike in trades from the second half of 2024 into 2025, the apartment sales market was still trailing its pre-pandemic trading pace.

Doug Root, co-founder and managing partner of Arlington, Virginia-based Blackfin Real Estate Investors, which recently bought the Sage Creek Apartments in Augusta, Georgia, for $17.3 million, is hopeful that sellers will be more motivated to bring properties to market this year.

“It's certainly not gangbusters, but there is more out there on the market,” Root said. “I wouldn't say it's all actionable. I think there's a lot of price discovery going on.”

Owners that, a couple of years ago, might have expected interest rates and cap rates to fall are becoming more realistic about the economic picture.

“There's nothing really indicating that it's going to snap back to a low interest rate, low cap rate environment,” Root said.

In addition, some owners that may be struggling could be forced to make a move. “There is debt that's maturing, and the longer the hold periods go, the more people's hands are going to get forced,” Root said. “There's a little more of an expectation that this is how the market is now.”

Others are seeing similar trends. Douglas Wilson, chairman and CEO of San Diego-based Douglas Wilson Co., which provides business, workout and real estate services, said more lenders are seeking solutions for their problem properties.

“In the last six to nine months, we're seeing people move forward more and say, ‘Hey, we've got to get our hands on this problem,’” Wilson told Multifamily Dive. “We've got to get a resolution.”

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