ST. MICHAELS, MD—Demand has been growing for luxury boutique hotels as the asset-class experiences a flight to quality, Marc Magazine of Savills Hospitality tells GlobeSt.com's Erika Morphy.

RICHMOND—Apple REIT is combining three REITs to form a REIT focused strictly on hotels. As it happens, the lodging sector for property trusts are doing very well now, according to SNL Financial.

WILMINGTON, DE—Three office buildings are all rumored to have secured offers and/or actually traded hands in recent days in this state.

MONTGOMERY VILLAGE, MD—Home Properties is selling the apartment building to The Donaldson Group because it wants to scale back its presence in the region.

MCLEAN, VA—The locally-based company partnered with Principal Real Estate Investors in 2013 to acquire retail assets throughout the Mid-Atlantic region.

WASHINGTON, DC—Last year was a dismal one for REIT investors, who watched the S&P 500 outperform the sector. But, as new NAREIT figures show, the industry increased its capitalization and raised record levels of debt and equity. Also some subsectors did reach into the double digits.

MCLEAN, VA—A new report from Freddie Mac suggests that favorable conditions will continue for 2014, but moderate somewhat. Separately, a Beech Street Capital report shows there are still more buyers than sellers in most markets.

WASHINGTON, DC-The deal highlights private equity's desire to invest in in-fill, boutique metro-served mixed-use locations, CBRE's Marc Rampulla tells GlobeSt.com's Erika Morphy.