WASHINGTON, DC—Even as this month's reports onsingle-family housing sales show deceleration inprice increases, the fundamentals for multifamilyremain solid. That's the word from the National MultifamilyHousing Council and the National Association ofRealtors, both of which reported that vacancies tickeddownward in the second quarter.

Citing two recent reports, the NMHC noted thatvacancy rates “decreased to pre-recession levels by one measure andremained unchanged by another” Specifically, the Census Bureau's Q2 apartment vacancy rate for all rental properties was 9.5%,unchanged from both Q1 of 2014 and from a year ago. Conversely, MPFResearch's national vacancy rate for investment-grade apartmentsfell 60 basis points from Q1 and 30 bps year-over-year to 4.4%.

“This is the lowest vacancy rate forinvestment-grade apartments since Q3 2007,” according to the NMHC.Regionally, the Northeast had the lowest Q2 vacancy rate at 3.4%,while the South had the highest, “although at 5.4%, it was stillthe lowest rate in more than seven years.”