Situated on Banyan Grove Lane off I-264 in the Hampton Roads community, Alta at Towne Square boasts a location near the Lynnhaven Mall and the new 17-block Town Center of Virginia Beach mixed-used project. The class A property was developed just last year and features such amenities as an exercise facility with a children's playroom, a business and meeting center and an on-site movie theater.

One of the reasons why the property commanded about 135,400 per-unit--the highest price per unit ever achieved in Virginia outside of the Metro Washington, DC area--is its prime location. The Hampton Roads multifamily market has an exceptionally low vacancy rate that it has maintained over the past several years. Currently, according to Carolina's Real Data, the area vacancy rate is at about 3.4% and has hovered around that number for the last few years.

Additionally, Alta at Towne Square stands out for its age, as only 2.9% of the apartment properties in the market were developed less than five years ago. And while there are new apartment projects on the horizon, a great percentage of new multifamily developments in the area involve condominiums, townhouses and senior properties, according to the 2004 Old Dominion University Center for Real Estate and Economic Development Survey of the local multifamily market for 2004.

"Three years ago one would never have thought that properties could sell for over $100,000 per unit in Hampton Roads," Drew White, of Cushman & Wakefield's Washington, DC office, tells GlobeSt.com. "The phenomenal response, fierce competition and continued sale of quality assets to institutional owners indicates the strength of the Hampton Roads market. Buyers are drawn to the Hampton Roads region because they can purchase better yields for trophy assets in an area that has seen higher rent growth and lower vacancy than many of the country's top markets."