The increase in interest rates in the early part of this year knocked some private investors out of the market and made institutional investors more of a force on the acquisition front, explained Darin Beebower, partner in Madison Partners. And the large number of condo conversions and low level of new apartment construction boosted apartment occupancy and rent growth in 2005, noted Delores Conway, director of the Casden Real Estate Economics Forecast at the University of Southern California Lusk Center for Real Estate.
