DALLAS–Apartment research and data firm Axiometrics says the state of the U.S. apartment market through 2014 was strong, with the largest fourth-quarter annual effective rent growth in nine years, according to a report from the Dallas-based business.

“The apartment market in 2014 exceeded just about everyone's expectations,” Axiometrics vice president of research Stephanie McCleskey told GlobeSt.com. “A large number of new apartments were delivered this past year, but at a macro level, this new supply hasn't had much of an impact on rents or occupancy. In fact, occupancy rates have remained high, giving landlords the incentive to continue pushing rents.”

Annual effective rent growth in the fourth quarter of 2014 for the country was 4.5 percent, according to the preliminary figures, a 47-basis-point (bps) increase from the 4.1 percent recorded in the third quarter and a 173-bps rise from the 2.8 percent of the fourth quarter of 2013. This quarter's rate represents the strongest quarter overall since measuring 4.9 percent in 2011's third quarter, and the highest fourth-quarter figure since the 5.8 percent of 2005.

“Rents typically decrease in the fourth quarter, which is a tough time for rentals,” McCleskey says. “The good news is that all individual quarters in 2014 had quarter-over-quarter effective rent growth above the corresponding 2013 quarter.”

In a “Top 25 Metropolitan Statistical Areas or Metropolitan Divisions” ranking, Fort Worth-Arlington's market was especially strong, at 5.7 percent effective growth in the fourth quarter of last year, while Dallas-Plano-Irving was 4.8 percent. Average rent in the latter sector was a hair under $1,000 per month ($999) while it averaged $885 in the Fort Worth market—the fifth-lowest among Top 25 cities.