Bargaining Power Is Shifting Toward Tenants As Multifamily Rent Growth Dissipates After years of unbridled rent growth, a reckoning is on the horizon for U.S. landlords as a softening apartment market and rising expenses push the ball closer to the tenants' court. New-lease asking rents rose just under 2% during the 12-month period ending in May, down from the double-digit increases seen a year ago and representing the largest deceleration in recent history, according to data aggregated by The Wall Street Journal from six national property data sources. 
Some rent measures are already showing negative growth patterns, with Redfin recording an annual dip of 0.6% in May, per the WSJ. Overall, 48 of the 100 largest U.S. cities are posting negative rent growth for new leases on an annual basis, according to Apartment List.An asking rent decline over…  Read the full story here. | 
