After a brief reprieve, Portland-area rents are starting to tick up again.

According to the rental industry analytics firm RealPage Inc., rents have climbed more than 3% in the past year. A year ago, rents were climbing at an annual rate of less than 1%.

It’s still a far cry from the 2015 and 2016, when the average rent skyrocketed by more than 10% in a year. But the trend is accelerating despite the tens of thousands of new apartments that opened across the metro area in recent years.

The construction glut has left high-end buildings in particular with apartments to fill, and many have offered discounts or freebies to lure tenants, pushing effective rents down even as the sticker price remains high.

“There was a real uptick in that luxury product segment," said Greg Willett, the chief economist for RealPage. "That created a little bit less of a competitive environment. We had rents flatten out in that segment, but they’re growing again.”

The rent increases aren’t felt evenly across the metro area.

In the central city, which has seen some of the most intense apartment development and where rents are highest, rates remain relatively flat.

But they’re growing more quickly in other corners of metro Portland. The Beaverton and Vancouver areas lead the way, with average rent increases that approach 5%.

That reflects more intense competition over the most affordable rentals. Willett said rents are climbing faster for low-rise and garden-style apartments, for example, than for more expensive units in new mid-rises and towers.

Renters are feeling the pressure, said Katrina Holland, the executive director of the Community Alliance of Tenants.

“It’s a message to our elected officials that we need to be extremely thoughtful, intentional and serious about implementing some robust anti-displacement processes,” she said. “Otherwise we’re just going to see gentrification continue.”

Oregon this year capped rent increases at 7% a year plus the rate of inflation, which for 2019 amounts to 10.3%. And Portland requires landlords to make payments to renters who choose to move rather than absorb a rent increase of 10 percent or more.

But renters continue to report rent increase of exactly 9.9% in Portland and 10.3% elsewhere in the state, Holland said.

“There’s some sort of controls in the sense that you can’t just keep raising rents 9.9% forever and expect people to keep living there,” she said. “But it’s still a lot for people to bear.”

There are still hundreds of apartments under construction across the metro area, with more planned. New construction applications have declined, however, as apartment builders puzzle through a new city of Portland mandate to include affordable units in new residential development.

Developers say that policy could hurt rents in the long run by making it more expensive to build apartments, though the policy’s effect remains clouded by a preemptive surge in permit applications before the mandate took effect and the broader economic shift.

The region’s economic growth has slowed after a long boom, and most economists think the U.S. will enter a recession within the next two years. That could result in increased vacancies as fewer people move to Portland for work, further curbing rent growth.

-- Elliot Njus

enjus@oregonian.com; 503-294-5034; @enjus

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