Apartment rent growth took a step backwards in October, according to reports from Yardi Matrix and RealPage. Yardi Matrix reported a $3 decline in the average U.S. asking rent to $1,718 and a 0.4% annual growth rate, while RealPage reported that asking rent growth was flat in October at 0.1% year-over-year, but net effective rents declined 0.56% from the previous month, the steepest October monthly drop since the Great Recession.

Rent growth turned negative in 14 of Yardi Matrix’s top 30 metros. Most of these markets, particularly in the Sun Belt, are impacted by a recent influx of supply and rapid rent increases over the past two and a half years, according to Yardi Matrix.

RealPage offered a comparable take: “It’s still all about supply. There’s still a lot of demand for apartments in 2023. Just not enough to keep pace with the nation’s biggest apartment construction spree in 50+ years. That wave came as a result of big rent growth and low vacancy of 2021 and early 2022.”

The rent growth picture was a little brighter in the single-family rental sector. There, Yardi Matrix reported that asking rents fell $2 in October to $2,121 and were up 1% percent Y-O-Y.