Aug 31, 2012 10:32 AM, By Bendix Anderson, Contributing Writer

Apartment rents are still growing across the country, but not as quickly as they were in the summer of 2011, when growth in effective rents peaked.

“Things have slowed since a year ago,” says Jay Denton, vice president of research for data firm Axiometrics Inc., based in Salt Lake City. “The growth rate has slowed for rents… The growth for occupancies is starting to flatten out.”

Axiometrics predicts that average apartment rents will settle into a steady pace of growth over the next few years, similar to rental markets in the mid-1990s, as occupancy rates stay very high.

The percentage of occupied apartments appears to be settling in at close to 95 percent. The national occupancy rate actually dropped very slightly… [Full Article]