In August, apartment rent growth stopped throughout the country on an annual basis, according to RealPage. But there were variations by product class and also by geographic market. And on aggregate, it was Class A rent changes that boosted the nationwide performance. 

As of last month, annual effective rents climbed 0.7% in the Class A category, but in contrast the rent change for Class B was a stagnant change of 0.0% and for Class C was a weaker reading of 0.4%. Overall, the annual effective asking rent change was 0.3% across the U.S. last month.     

In some markets, the differences in rent performance by category class are worth calling out. For example, in some of the largest apartment markets rent change in Class A units are weighing down market-wide readings, running 700-plus basis points below Class B and C readings and as much as 300-plus bps below market averages.