Multifamily owners have carefully been watching rent growth numbers for three main reasons. One is getting a sense of profits and return. Next, monitoring financing, because if a deal was recent and based on cheap money and high leverage, chances are the rationale depended on ongoing rent growth to justify low cap rates. And third, if rates go up, as they are, investors and owners might want to know if it's time to jump.

But multiple sources are noticing rent declines that started in July. A new one from Markerr, covering the top 100 MSAs across the U.S. by total number of employees in an MSA, continues the news: year-over-year rent growth peaked in April and the momentum has been decelerating. In June, the y-o-y rate was about 9%. In July, it was down to 7.7%.

Even so, the average rent hit a new record of $1,612, up 0.6% from June, according to Markerr. That makes sense as what the market is seeing is a slower rate of growth, not an overall drop. So long as the growth rates are above 0%, rents on the whole are going to grow.