Greg Audel bounced around Montrose for more than a decade, renting garage apartments and duplexes with creaking wooden floors and overburdened window units. It was all part of the "charming yet shoddy" appeal of the diverse and quirky neighborhood.

Then a few years ago, he moved into the new Amli River Oaks apartment complex on West Gray, a pricier and more typical example of the projects that developers have been pushing in desirable inner-Houston areas. Audel pays $1,800 a month to live in a complex with a billiard room that was built over an old sports bar where he used to shoot pool.

But the hot rental market that enticed developers to launch projects like the Amli River Oaks has gone the way of $100-a-barrel crude oil, leaving multifamily property owners worrying about how they will fill their units. Energy companies are cutting the very employees the housing was being built for, and hawkers are now a common sight in front of new projects, spinning signs that advertise free initial rent and other concessions.

"Unfortunately, we can't turn off the switch and put our shovels down," said Philip Morgan, vice president of development for Morgan, a Houston-based multifamily developer that has projects underway near City Centre in west Houston, the Heights and Midtown. "There is an imbalance of supply and demand. It's going to get worse before it gets better."

More Information Rental Trends in Houston region Tens of thousands of new apartment units coming to the market may ease some of the rents in the area, but some of the most desirable neighborhoods will still have sky-high rents. Greater Houston Rent: $967 per month Trend: Dropped 1.4 percent over the last adjusted 3-month period; rose 4 percent over 12 months. Occupancy: 90.4 percent Trend: Dropped 2.1 percent over 3 months and nearly 1 percent over 12 months. Heights/Washington Avenue Rent: $1,513 per month Trend: Dropped 15 percent over the last adjusted 3-month period; rose 0.1 percent over 12 months. Occupancy: 83 percent Trend: Dropped 2 percent over 3 months and 2 percent over 12 months. Highland Village/Upper Kirby/West University Rent: $1,686 per month Trend: Dropped nearly 10 percent over the last adjusted 3-month period; rose 2.4 percent over 12 months. Occupancy: 85.9 percent Trend: Rose 2.5 percent over 3 months and 5 percent over 12 months. Downtown Rent: $1,909 per month Trend: Rose 1.7 percent over the last adjusted 3-month period; fell 1.2 percent over 12 months. Occupancy: 79 percent Trend: Dropped 37.6 percent over 3 months and 2.5 percent over 12 months. Montrose/Midtown/Museum District Rent: $1,694 per month Trend: Rose 1.2 percent over the last adjusted 3-month period and 1.7 percent over 12 months. Occupancy: 92.4 percent Trend: Rose 6.3 percent over 3 months and 3.5 percent over 12 months. Source: Apartment Data Services; monthly data trends as of January 2016. The 3-month trend measures how the market would look if rents and occupancies remained at the current pace over a 12-month period.

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Across greater Houston, rental prices are not exactly plummeting, in part because recent construction largely has been of the top-line, or Class A, variety that commands a premium. But the days of consistent double-digit increases appear to be over.

Rental prices are up 4 percent year over year, Apartment Data Services reports, but they are down 1.4 percent for the most recently studied 3-month period. Within previously hot areas such as the Heights or Washington Avenue, the decline is measured in double digits, and there is a concurrent decline in occupancy rates.

In Montrose, rents are still rising but at a slower pace, Apartment Data Services found, as housing demand appears to have ebbed for the venerable Houston enclave.

"I think I represent the conflict of the people who live in Montrose that has been happening for a long time," Audel said, noting the new housing built to draw folks like him. "I live here for a reason: there's something funky and unique about it. It's certainly losing that, and I know I'm part of the problem."

The Energy Corridor and The Woodlands, which are heavily dependent on the oil industry, also are seeing dips in rents and occupancy.

"Is this truly the start of more decline? Or do we come out of it a little bit?" said Bruce McClenny, president of Houston-based Apartment Data Services.

The ongoing slump in crude-oil prices has pared the region's job prospects and Houston is now forecast to add about 22,000 jobs in 2016. At the same time, more than 29,000 units in 102 properties are under construction. Many of the 20,000 or so units set to open this year were built to charge much higher rents than the city traditionally has seen, raising concerns that the demand may not be there.

"In general, Houston is a wait-and-see kind of market," McClenny said. "Things change quickly with the condition of oil."

Only benefitting some

For now, McClenny said, it's a relatively good time to be a renter. But that could be temporary because so many of the rental units are skewed toward the higher end of the market. Since March 2012, at least 6,240 units have knocked down or are slated for demolition. Most of those apartments were on the lower end and had cheaper rents than the new construction built in their place.

McClenny said the city's overall rent increases are squeezing truly affordable housing out altogether in particular areas.

"Properties are being built to a very high standard on the upper end of the market. So, that's the affordability issue we are seeing," McClenny said. "We are heading toward a situation where more and more properties are becoming out of reach, especially if you want to live close in."

The apartment glut will slow the teardown trend, but landlords can let rents go down only so much, said Patrick Jankowski, vice president of research at the Greater Houston Partnership.

Renters who make $60,000 to $70,000 a year could benefit from the concessions now being offered, Jankowski said, but many neighborhoods will remain out of reach for people who make $50,000 or less.

"It will now be more affordable in the sense that you're not paying $2,000 but instead $1,500," he said, a benefit for higher-earning, white-collar professionals.

"The blue-collar renters are not benefitting from it yet," Jankowski said.

The most expensive neighborhoods in Houston have little stock considered on the lower end.In the Montrose/Midtown/Museum District market area, 80 percent of the apartment complexes are considered top of the line, or Class A, according to Apartment Data Services. In the Heights, 76 percent of communities fall in that category. In the Upper Kirby/Highland Village, West University market, 94 percent are Class A. In downtown, all of the apartment communities are in the highest end of the scale.

Overall, 19 percent of the greater Houston market is considered top end. When the new construction comes online in the next couple of years, McClenny said an even higher percent of the stock will be Class A. He said there is a need in the Houston market for refurbished apartments that still can offer somewhat affordable rent prices.

'An anomaly'

John Fenoglio with the CBRE real estate firm in Houston, said 2016 and 2017 should be more difficult because of all the new units coming online.

"The pipeline is large right now and that's a function of where demand was in 2014," he said.

Yet, he said there is still a trend toward renting and young people and empty-nesters wanting to live near job centers in urban neighborhoods.

"Once you create the critical mass, the demand will continue to pick up," he said.

Elan Heights, a high-rise built to replace an aging Skylane Apartments off Interstate 10 near downtown, is preleasing upper-floor units before its opening later this year. The 326-unit community by Charleston, S.C.-based Greystar still expects to ask monthly rent of $1,695 to $3,375 for units that range in size from 627 to 1,427 square feet.

In January, the average rent in the Heights market was $1,500 a month.

Greystar officials say they are preparing for big concessions on some of their projects but plan to offer only a standard construction discount at Elan Heights. The company's Stacy Hunt said the Heights is expected to weather the oil-induced downturn and apartment glut.

"At this point, we are preparing for a long winter just to be safe. ... The Heights is an anomaly. It's a hot place young people want to live, but there are not many units over there. It's difficult to build there so we are optimistic about that project," Hunt said.

The downtown market, which has some of the highest rents in the city, has a unique situation. The Downtown Living Initiative pushed developers to build in the struggling market by providing incentives to build residential. Now cranes are in full swing building the high-end high-rises.

With more units under construction than already open, the downtown rental market will double by 2017.