What $320 Million Can Buy in US Apartment Markets

Apartments that are commuting distance from Washington, D.C., Miami and California’s Silicon Valley may be in culturally and geographically different areas, but they all have one thing in common: they can provide a snapshot of the property demand in their region.

The prices that big-ticket apartment buildings fetch often reflect how a market is performing, highlighting investor confidence or foreshadowing potential risk depending on local factors such as job growth and demographics.

And, of course, a building’s location, age, condition, occupancy and other characteristics can affect the price of properties, from soaring housing towers with prestige and high-end amenities to suburban garden-style complexes.

Here’s a subjective look at how far $320 million will go for a recently built apartment building in each of those regions.

1501 Berryessa Road
Price: $320 million, or $580,762 per unit
Size: 551 units across more than 6.5 acres
Buyer: A joint venture of MG Properties, a San Diego investment firm, and Los Angeles-based Oaktree Capital Management
Seller: Western National Group, an Irvine, California-based investment firm and the property’s developer
Year Built: 2019
Property’s Average Rent: More than $3,650 per month, or nearly 7% higher than last year
Fun Fact: San Jose is a drive away from some of the world’s largest tech headquarters — Google, Facebook parent company Meta, LinkedIn, Apple and others are all based in Silicon Valley — and the city is popular among renters as well as one of the South Bay Area’s largest multifamily markets. MG Properties said at the time of the July purchase that it was attracted to the region’s employment growth, which has resulted in a significant spike in demand across the multifamily market.

234 South Dixie Highway
Price: $320.9 million, or $648,174 per unit
Size: 495 units spread across about 1.4 acres
Buyer: Hines Global Income Trust, the real estate investment arm of Houston-based developer Hines
Seller: Coral Gables-based developer Nolan Reynolds International and joint venture partner 54 Madison Capital, a New York-based private equity firm
Year Built: 2022
Property’s Average Rent: More than $3,350 per month, or nearly 16.5% higher than last year
Fun Fact: With a roughly 20-minute drive east to Miami, rents in Coral Gables — similar to other fast-growing Florida multifamily markets since the onset of the pandemic — have climbed by nearly 10% annually over the past three years, pushing developers eager to capitalize on the expansion to add tens of thousands of units to the region’s construction pipeline. Gables Station was built to cater to commuters that work in Miami, and the transit-oriented development has quickly filled up since finishing construction this year. The property’s vacancy rate at the time of the August sale to Hines was about 8%, according to CoStar data, a sign that renters returning to the office are prioritizing complexes near their workplaces.

7970 Maitland St.
Price: $323.8 million, or $394,818 per unit
Size: 410 units spread across nearly 8 acres
Buyer: Institutional investment giant Blackstone, which is based in New York City
Seller: Glendale, California-based PS Business Parks Inc.
Year Built: 2022
Property’s Average Rent: About $2,650 per month, which is higher than the neighborhood average of about $2,385 a month
Fun Fact: McLean is a hotbed of corporate giants, and Hilton Worldwide’s headquarters right next door to Brentford at the Mile, which sold in July. It’s a spot surrounded by some of the Washington, D.C. area’s largest companies, retail centers and access to multiple employment hubs, meaning it can command some of the highest rents. At the time of its groundbreaking about two years ago, the developer said the property was “designed to serve the residential commuter by offering well-appointed homes within walking distance of major employers, world-class shopping, restaurants, and entertainment.”