A page has turned in the apartment rental market. Low-rent suburbs, for the first time in at least a decade, are now seeing more apartment construction than higher-rent suburbs. And rent growth in low-rent areas is modestly higher than in more affluent neighborhoods.

That is significant both for renters in areas where average effective rent is below the market average and for the nation's housing stock as a whole. "Low rent suburbs make up about 58% of total existing units over the last decade," noted RealPage Analytics recent report that compares suburban markets by price points.

By comparison, in higher rent suburbs multifamily makes up just 27% of housing. In urban cores multifamily represents only 14.5%, but rents in this submarket are usually well above their home market average. However, more than 85% of apartment properties across the country fall within suburban submarkets, the report found.