Trailing 3 Months: Seasonality Returns; Largest Gains in Southern California

■ Rent growth cooled to 0.1% on a trailing threemonth (T-3) basis in September, decelerating from 0.3% in August.

■ As the calendar turns to fall, T-3 rent growth has turned negative in a few markets. It will likely impact additional markets through the remainder of 2019

Rents increased 0.1% nationally on a trailing T-3 basis, which compares the last three months to the previous three months. The T-3 ranking demonstrates short-term changes and not necessarily long-term trends.

Traditionally, seasonality has had a downward impact on multifamily rents during the last few months of the year, and 2019 appears headed for the same trend. T-3 rent growth was flat or negative in 16 of the top 30 markets, one month after rents grew in all 30 markets. Orange County (0.4%), the Inland Empire and Los Angeles (both 0.3%) were the strongest-performing markets on a T-3 basis, despite high costs of living and newly enacted rent control legislation. For the second consecutive month, Lifestyle and RBN units had equal rent growth (0.1%) on a T-3 basis.

San Jose (-0.4%) fell to the bottom of the rankings, and rents decelerated significantly on a yearover-year basis as well, an indication that the skyhigh rents may be under pressure in the Bay Area.

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