Sule Aygoren Carranzaismanaging editor of RealEstate Forum.

WASHINGTON, DC-The metro area's class A apartment marketcontinues to be a top performer, but the amount of new developmentsplanned and under way could pose a challenge going forward. Alwaysconsidered a solid market for multifamily, Greater Washington, DChas increasingly exhibited signs of stress since the end of 2006.And according to Delta Associates, things didn't look much betteras this year kicked off, thanks to a growing shadow rental market,condominium reversions, a growing pipeline of supply and weaker jobgrowth.

The region's year-end stabilized vacancy rate of 3.7% was muchlower than the national rate of 5.8%, but represented an80-basis-point increase over the prior year. As a result, landlordsweren't able to push rents up as aggressively as they have in thepast--growth during 2007 was 1.8%. That's a drastic decline fromthe long-term annual average rent growth of 4.4%. Owners of class Aassets were only able to grow rents by 1.3% last year, compared to4% the prior year.