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(To read more on the multifamily market, click here.)

SAN FRANCISCO-Name your property type and it is most likelyrising in value faster than it ever has before or close to anall-time high, according to a new report from Global RealAnalytics, publisher of the National Real Estate Index. Mostproperty sectors achieved annual price increases in 2005 that havenot been seen "since the beginning of this bull market in the1990s," says Dick Wollack, CEO of Global Real Analytics, incommenting on the report.Wollack cites a "year-end flurry ofproperty transactions" that helped push most property sectors intodouble-digit annual price increases. But prices were alreadyclimbing, so the action late in the year only further propelledvalues that were already accelerating.Prices for class A apartmentsled the property types with an appreciation of 12.8% at the end of2005, followed closely by CBD office values at 11.8%. Other ratesof appreciation ranged from 11.6% for retail assets to 7.6% forsuburban office."The last time the National Real Estate Indexreported anything close to the current appreciation rates was forthe year 1998 when CBD office prices shot up 15% and class Aapartment prices jumped 10%," the GRA report declares. Still, thatyear did not produce the same gains across all sectors as in2005.In addition to different rates of appreciation by propertytype, the report shows regional differences that in some cases varydramatically from the national averages. Global Real Analyticstitles this section of its report "Florida and the West theBest."It points out that the Pacific/Southwest and Florida/Gulfregions produced the highest annual average appreciation across allproperty types, 13% and 12% respectively. That contrasted with anEast Central Region average appreciation figure of 5%, lowest inthe country.In view of the soaring prices, Wollack comments that"looking forward to 2006 it would be bold to again predict the samelevel of increases." But then, it would have been bold to predictthe increases seen in 2005, he says.

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