DALLAS—Existing home sales reached an eight-month high lastmonth, and a recent GlobeSt.com article raised anew the question of whether new supplyis overtaking demand in the multifamily sector. However, four newreports, including one from Dallas-basedAxiometrics, indicate that apartments' reign isfar from done.

Axiometrics reported on Tuesday that June's concession rate of0.78% was the lowest in at least five years, annualized effectiverent growth of 3.6% was the highest since December 2012 andoccupancy remained above 95% for the second month in a row. “InApril, 2014 year-to-date effective rent growth just edged 2011 and2012 to position itself as the strongest year of the recovery,”says Jay Denton, VP of research at Axiometrics.“The apartment market's performance in the past two months haswidened the gap.”

Annualized national effective rent growth increased 10 basispoints in June to 3.6%, compared to 3.5% in May, according toAxiometrics. June marked the fourth straight month that effectiverent growth increased, as well as the fourth consecutive month inwhich the rate was 3.1% or above. The rate was the highest sinceJanuary 2013, when it was 1/100th of a percentage point ahead ofwhere it was in June.