Equity Residential, the largest U.S. apartment owner, and Apartment Investment & Management Co., the nation’s fourth largest, sold 53,000 apartments last year so that they could move their investments to faster growing parts of the country.

The companies sold in markets such as Dallas, Detroit, Houston, and Indianapolis and purchased or upgraded apartments in New York, Boston, Washington, D.C.,South Florida, Southern California, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

The fastest growing rental markets in 2006 were San Francisco, where apartment rents rose 7.8 percent to an average of $1,600 per month; New York, which grew 7.5 percent to $2,512; and Washington, D.C., which grew 7.2 percent to $1,224, according to data from Reis Inc., a New York research firm.

Source: Bloomberg News, Dan Levy (04/20/07)

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