How do apartments fare with market cycles?

[Tom Lafferty]

I'm looking for input from long time apartment owners who have been through a few different market cycles with apartment investments. I'm currently looking at 60+ unit properties for the purpose of syndication. Research, education, and networking have taken care of most of my questions and fears, but I still wonder about how apartments do when the market changes.

I've met several people with 2 or 3 complexes who have been investing since before the last drop, and they are doing okay. Several others have purchased in the last 2 years and they're doing phenomenal. One group I know of that bought right before the drop is not doing okay, and may not recover.

I guess I'm mainly looking for your experiences in cash flow, reversion values, vacancy increases or decreases as the market changes. Did you see improvements as home loans got tougher to get? Do you think vacancy will increase as lenders start to loosen up?
Obviously no one can predict the future, but any experiences or even predictions you'd like to share would be appreciated!