Investors looking for distressed multifamily opportunities haveso far had slim pickings. But the flow of deals may grow strongerin the second half of 2010 and into 2011. Distress transactionshave already started picking up for multifamily assets, sales ofdistressed properties accounted for 31 % of the nearly $1 billionof apartment assets that changed hands in April, according to thelatest data from Real Capital Analytics. Troubled assets took up a20% share of deal volume at year-end 2009.

By comparison, RCA reports that distressed assets accounted for20% of the $700 million of retail deals that closed in April. Onlysix of the 30 hotel properties that sold in April were distressed,taking up $20 million of the aggregate $769 million in volume. Andin the office sector, which saw $763 million in volume, just two ofthe 26 properties that traded qualified as distressed.

While the increase in distressed sales is promising, it's stillnot anywhere near the numbers most market watchers were expecting.Considering the total amount of outstanding distress in theapartment sector-some $33 billion at the end of the first quarter,according to RCA-the distressed sales that have taken place so farare a mere drop in the bucket.