Under the basic understanding of economics and the relationship between supply and demand, there comes a time when more inventory means less money. Customers can have their pick; competitors come to a point where they start lowering prices. Pricing power gets harder to come by in general.

That's been happening increasingly in multifamily markets, especially those in the South and West that have seen inflow migration from states and cities in the Northeast and Midwest. And it will only get worse this year, according to RealPage, which is predicting that scheduled multifamily unit completions in 2024 will eclipse the record-breaking levels in 2023.

Blame the pandemic as the time at which systemic shortcomings came to a head. "Back when apartment occupancy and rent growth were hitting record highs across the nation in 2021 and 2022, we saw a surge in multifamily permitting activity," they wrote. "As a result, 2023 logged a big increase in deliveries, with nearly 440,000 apartment units completed throughout the year, a 36-year high for the market. For 2024, scheduled completions in the U.S. total another 670,000 or so apartments, which blows past that record volume by about 50%."