A year ago, Houston was the hot spot for apartment completions. Now another Texas city leads the way, as Dallas takes the top spot with 27,974 completed units. New York City comes in second with 23,207 completions, while Houston slips to third place with 21,404 new units.

New supply in Houston was absorbed relatively well despite being elevated by historical standards, RealPage says. Absorption in the nation's energy capital was bolstered in the Q4 by displaced residents who turned to apartments in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.

Annual completions totaled between about 12,000 and 16,000 units in each of the typically high-supply markets of Washington, DC, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Seattle. RealPage reported last July that the CBD rent growth in these four markets varied widely, with Seattle seeing Y-O-Y increases of 7.2% and the Los Angeles urban core experiencing a decline of 0.4%.

The rent-decline situation that L.A. faced was magnified in Nashville. In the Music City, a total of 11,203 new apartments came on line last year, an increase of about 8% in the metro area's inventory, resulting in a steep annual occupancy decline. Rounding out the year's roster of high-volume delivery markets were Austin, Chicago, Denver and Northern New Jersey, with additions totaling just under the 11,000-unit mark.

After hitting a cyclical peak in '17, the apartment market is expected to see supply volumes ease in the current year, says RealPage. Deliveries for the coming year are scheduled at around 300,000 units. That's down from the '17 peak but still roughly 60% above the historical norm.

Construction volumes have also dropped significantly, to 344,000 units as of this past Dec. 31. That's down substantially from the cycle's peak of 487,000 units a year ago, a decline that RealPage says is an indication that the annual completion volumes have peaked for the cycle.