Apartment rents dipped again in January, dropping by 0.3 percent and marking the fifth consecutive month-over-month decline.

The downturn was widely dispersed across the US, according to Apartment List, with rents decreasing in 67 of the nation's 100 largest cities. The decline was sharpest in Newark, where prices were down by 2.3 percent month-over-month, while San Francisco, New York City, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. all posted monthly declines of more than double the national rate.

While January's dip was more moderate than the declines Apartment List observed from October to December, the decline "was still sharper than the usual seasonal trend, signaling the continuation of a broader cooldown in market conditions," the firm notes in a report breaking down the data. And over the past six months as a whole, no large metro in the country has experienced positive rent growth.