WASHINGTON 鈥斅燭hings are not all bad for renters in the D.C. area.
The average rent at an apartment building in the D.C.聽metro area now sits at $1,810. However, that figure represents only a 1 percent increase over a year ago, according to the real estate research firm Delta Associates.
In some areas, the average rent for certain types of apartments even dropped.
At newer, more upscale high-rise buildings, prices fell by about 5 percent both in Northeast D.C. and in the north and west Fairfax area, which includes the cities of Fairfax and Falls Church.
Bethesda, North Bethesda and Rockville all saw drops of about 2 percent.
Bucking the trend was the Silver Spring/Wheaton area, which saw the average high-rise rents shoot up by 5 percent.
Similar low-rise buildings saw rents fall by over 5 percent in east Prince William County, but rise by over 5 percent in the Columbia area.
Overall, Delta Associates says a boom in apartment construction continues to put downward pressure on the rental market. Over the past year, the number of new apartments that became available was double the area鈥檚 long term average.
A similar number of new apartments are expected to hit the market over the next year as well.
