A 30+ year waitlist tells you almost everything you need to know about housing supply in Avalon.
Most apartment owners worry about finding tenants.
At Tremont Street Apartments in Avalon, the problem is finding enough apartments for the tenants.
The 62-unit property, sold in a transaction led by Tony Azzi and Arteen Zahiri of The Azzi Group, is 100% occupied with a reported waiting list stretching more than 30 years.
The property sold for $8.64 million, or $139,420 per unit.
But the price isn't the most interesting number.
Thirty years is.
WHY IS THE WAITLIST 30+ YEARS?
Start with Catalina Island.
Land is scarce. Building is difficult and expensive. And there simply aren't many places to add housing.
You can't solve Avalon's housing shortage by building another 500 apartments down the street.
Tremont has 62 apartments across five buildings on 1.42 acres.
The mix is 10 one-bedrooms, 37 two-bedrooms and 15 three-bedrooms.
These aren't vacation homes.
They're housing for people who need to live and work on the island.
62 UNITS THAT ARE HARD TO REPLACE
Avalon needs workers, families, teachers and hospitality employees who can afford to live near their jobs.
Tremont is a HUD Section 8 affordable housing property, and the sale keeps all 62 units as affordable housing.
The 30+ year waitlist tells you how badly that housing is needed.
NOT AN EASY DEAL TO CLOSE
This wasn't a simple apartment sale.
The transaction required coordination of the ground lease, HUD approval, housing contract and existing Freddie Mac financing.
Tony Azzi and Arteen Zahiri represented the seller and found the buyer who ultimately got the transaction closed.
And in a market this tight, keeping 62 affordable apartments in place matters.
THE OPERATOR TAKE
The most interesting number in this deal isn't $8.64 million. It's 30 years.
A 30+ year waitlist is the market telling you something very clearly:
Demand isn't the problem. Supply is.
And on Catalina Island, new supply is particularly hard to create.
That's what makes these 62 apartments different.
They're part of a housing supply Avalon can't easily replace.