With much of America's attention focused on the meltdown in the housing market, rising foreclosures and the economy's wheezy recovery, one unlikely sector has been quietly and steadily posting high returns to investors.

Phones have been around for over 140 years, so answering the phone is nothing new - or is it?

A number of recent articles are exuding positive thoughts for apartments in the coming years.

Paul LaMonica wrote an article for CNNMoney.com on April 14, titled, “Renting: The New American Dream?” The article states that The Great Recession has taught many people that home ownership is not a divine right, but a privilege earned only after saving an appropriate down payment. The article also quotes Jerry Davis, senior vice president of property operations at UDR, a Denver-based apartment REIT that has ownership interests in over 51,000 units. He observed that before the housing collapse about 25 percent of renters moved out to buy homes, with only 12 percent doing so today. He also stated that record high college enrollments are good for apartments, as well as retiring baby boomers looking to downsize and simplify.

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The apartment industry often doesn't improve until the job market strengthens, and workers gain the confidence to drop their roommate and get a place of their own or move out of their parents' basement.

“It’s been a great six months for apartment market fundamentals,” Jay Spivey, senior director of analytics at CoStar, said at the company sponsored webinar titled “The State of the U.S. Multi-Family Market: Mid-Year 2010 Review & Forecast,” held the first week of August.

So often we focus on leasing and being creative with our marketing that we forget about Resident Retention. We think oh we don’t have to market our current residents they already live here at our community. That is the wrong thought process, marketing does not stop the moment they sign a lease, it’s a continuous thing. So let’s focus on some creative ways to market renewals and to get the current resident to stay a current resident. Especially now in these times when we are all competing for each other residents.

For some time now, apartment industry experts have been pointing to strongly positive demographic trends that should increase apartment demand. Reasons cited include overall population growth, echo boomers entering the housing market, continued high levels of immigration and a continued shift in household composition away from the “traditional” married couple with children households toward single-person (as well as single-parent) households.