Written by David Bracken | TRIANGLE NEWS & OBSERVER

Oberlin Court, the apartment and retail center at Wade Avenue and Oberlin Road in west Raleigh, has been sold for $72.25 million, according to Wake County property records.

It's the latest in a string of major apartment acquisitions by institutional investors in the Triangle.

The buyer was Atlanta-based Prudential Real Estate Investors. The seller was Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co.

Just last month Prudential bought the Woodland Terrace senior living complex in Cary for $53 million.

Developed by Crosland, Oberlin Court opened in 2008. It includes 370 apartments and 30,000 square feet of retail shops.

It was 95 percent occupied in September, according todata from the Triangle Apartment Association and Karnes Research.

The flurry of recent apartment deals is being driven by strong fundamentals in the apartment sector, which has benefited from the turmoil in the single-family housing sector and a general lack of new construction during the economic downturn.

The apartment vacancy rate in the Triangle was 6 percent in September, down from 6.7 percent a year ago, according to data from the TAA and Karnes.