Seattle is one of the only top cities for new development that is also a top city for rent growth. Estimates for effective rent growth here range from 8.3 percent, an estimate from MPF Research, to 4.9 percent, according to Axiometrics, over the year ending in the first quarter 2017.

In 2016, developers added nearly 11,000 new apartments to the markets in Seattle. That’s nearly twice the historical average of 6,200 new apartment units per year, according to Axiometrics. However, demand has kept pace. “There is a lot of growth in the tech industry in Seattle and rents are not as high there as in San Francisco,” says Barbara Byrne Denham, senior economist in the research and economics department at Reis Inc.

Southern California’s Inland Empire, the region’s busiest industrial east-west transit hub, will add more industrial space than any other U.S. market, with nearly 32 million sq. ft. completed or under construction. With direct vacancy at 3.0 percent, asking rents average $6.36 per sq. ft.

Strong employment growth and limited new development have pushed effective apartment rents upwards consistently at a rate of more the 6.0 percent a year since 2015. Effective rents grew an average of 6.5 percent over the year that ended in the first quarter, according to MPF Research.

However, “construction starts are accelerating now, so today’s rent growth momentum may prove difficult to sustain,” says Willet.

Developers have been slow to build new apartments in Atlanta, since it was badly hurt by the real estate crash.

But now Atlanta’s economy is roaring ahead. “The employment market has been very strong there,” says Reis’ Denham.

Annual employment growth in Atlanta has just hit 100,000 jobs, and that expansion is creating lots of demand for apartments. Effective rents grew by an average of 6.2 percent over the year that ended in the first quarter, according to MPF Research.