SANTA BARBARA, CA—Multifamily rents averaged $1,359 per month nationally at year's end, the same dollar amount that Yardi Matrix's monthly survey of 121 markets reported for November. On a year-over-year basis, rents in December were up 2.5%, an increase of 20 basis points from the previous month.

Although that's a solid gain, it's also the smallest annual increase recorded by Yardi Matrix since 2010, when annual rents fell 0.4%. Since then, rents have posted Y-O-Y gains of at least 3.3% per year—peaking at 5.4% in 2015—until 2017 broke the streak. Rents were down 0.3% for the fourth quarter, only the second quarter of negative growth since Q2 '10.

The bigger picture, though, is how consistently strong the apartment market has been over the course of the recovery, says Yardi Matrix. “The question for 2018 is how much more steam is left in the market, whether the deceleration will continue or if it will level off or turn negative,” according to the firm's latest monthly survey, issued Tuesday.