According to the survey, 2008 saw 91,500 apartment purchases, down 6% compared to 2007, and new apartment acquisitions were down 14% in 2008. Only 19,000 new apartments were purchased last year, or 21% of the entire market.
The average figures for 2008 seem reasonable, but focusing on the market performance of the last quarter of the year when the major real estate crisis in the U.S. began to unfold reveals that nearly all parameters point to a real collapse. That quarter saw just 15,100 transactions, down 43% compared to the fourth quarter of the year before, and the lowest quarterly figures since the economic recession of 2002.
