BISNOW: Relentless multifamily construction across the country has finally hit landlords in the pocketbook. According to Zillow, rent growth has slowed nationwide for the fourth straight year ending in July 2018, and the fast-growing cities of the past few years that propped up those numbers have fallen back down to earth.

Much of the construction that chased those growing rents has delivered, giving tenants an unprecedented number of choices and pressuring landlords into greater and greater concessions just to keep rent from falling into the basement. Due to high construction costs, virtually all new construction has been in the Class-A sector of the multifamily market, which has a shallower pool of potential tenants to draw from than older, cheaper supply.

Compounding the issue for landlords is that millennials have finally started to buy houses in greater numbers, according to Zillow. Homeownership among the millennial demographic increased by 1.2% from the second quarter of 2017 to the same period this year. As developers take notice of the issue and pause on new construction new units will likely absorb slowly but steadily over the next couple of years, rather than collapse the multifamily industry.