Core Campus Investment Partners recently plunked down about $8.4M for a quarter-acre site in Tempe. It's the highest price in Arizona in the last 10 years per SF, Cushman & Wakefield's Brian Rosella said.

"As a vibrant urban area, demand for land in Tempe has been unprecedented," Rosella said. "But this closing has set a new benchmark for pricing in the state." Core Campus expects the price to be worth it: The company is planning to develop a high-rise apartment project at the 7th Street and Myrtle part of the site, and is still working on plans for the 7th Street and Mill Avenue part.

Core Campus has developed in Tempe before. In 2013, it built the 19-story Hub On Campus (below), which features 269 units (637 beds). The student housing property is just south of ASU Sun Devil Stadium at 323 East Veterans Way. Chicago-based Core Spaces, the parent of Core Campus, also develops apartments and hospitality properties.

Student housing counts as a specialized niche, but can Phoenix sustain more apartment properties overall? More than 1,300 units were recently completed (six properties in Q4), but many more are on the way, according to ABI Multifamily. Nearly 12,500 units in the MSA are now underway (54 properties) and more than 20,300 are planned.

In all of 2016, over 7,900 new units were completed in the Phoenix MSA, according to ABI. That sounds like a lot, but it's fewer than in 2009 (more than 9,300 units) and during some years of the 1990s. Since construction was so low between 2010 and '12 — only 615 new units in '11, for instance — arguably the current boom is making up for lost time.