Many apartment owners can't wait until 2012. If the economy recovers, they will be looking at a perfect storm of events - a shortage of available entry-level housing units, a boom in demand driven largely by Millenials (real-estate jargon for those just about ready to strike out on their own), and the ability to push rents significantly higher due to a shortage of suitable apartments.

Tom Bozzuto, CEO of the Bozzuto Group, a Greenbelt, MD.-based multifamily manager overseeing 28,500 units in the Mid-Atlantic states, told Multifamily Executive Magazine recently that "It's not a lot of fun right now to be in the apartment business. But, you take pleasure in knowing that this is the trough in the wave."