PHILADELPHIA-Two disparate multifamily properties in separate, unrelated transactions have been sold. Audubon Center in Northeast Philadelphia has traded for $22 million or $59,299 per unit while 64-unit Mt. Airy Court near Elkins Park has commanded slightly more than $4.4 million or just north of $69,000 per unit.

The larger Audubon Center at 6242 Roosevelt Blvd. is an eight-building complex containing 371 units. The sale was an off-market transaction. The Livingston, NJ-based Gebroe-Hammer Associates team of assistant vice president Eli Rosen, executive vice president Joel Schwartz and senior vice president Joseph Brecher represented the seller and also procured the buyer of record, Audubon Properties.

As GlobeSt.com previously reported, the seller consists of four principals of New York City-based Vintage Group, which acquired the complex in October 2004 for $16 million. At that time, the complex consisted of 456 units, which included 85 non-duplex apartments. Vintage Group retained the 371 duplexes and immediately sold the others to an unidentified investor at an undisclosed price.

Brecher says the complex, built in the late 1950s, was 95% occupied with the sale to Audubon Properties. The rental rate for a one-bedroom unit is about $775 per month and about $875 per month for a two-bedroom apartment.

Rosen and Brecher of Gebroe-Hammer also marketed and represented the seller of the 16-building Mt. Airy Court complex at 1501-63 E. Mount Airy Ave. in the residential neighborhood that borders Elkins Park. "It is the last of several properties being disposed of by three area individuals," Brecher says.

Richard Kelin of West Orange, NJ-based Feinstein, Raiss, Kelin & Booker represented the buyer, Airy Avenue LP, which Brecher says is a Brooklyn, NY-based partnership that owns apartment properties in New Jersey and New York City. "This marks its first foray into the Philadelphia apartment market," he adds.

The East Mount Airy section of the city is noted for its racial diversity. Brecher says it is "considered to be the most well-blended neighborhood in Philadelphia." The complex was built in the 1960s. Brecher says it is 95% occupied and rents range from an average of $650 per month for one-bedroom units and $750 per month for two-bedroom units.

"Deal flow in the Philadelphia apartment market has picked up," Spencer Yablon, regional manager of the local office of Marcus & Millichap, tells GlobeSt.com. "Investors continue to focus on assets in Philadelphia County due to its high population density and high concentration of renter households." The median sales price throughout the Greater Philadelphia market is $70,500 per unit this year, according to his office's research department, which forecasts an average asking rental rate of $1,007 per month and an effective rent of $968 per month for the year. Both rates represent a 5% increase in comparison with rent rates in 2006.