After years of painful increases, the cost of renting an apartment in most Bay Area cities has hit a plateau.

In San Francisco, the median cost of a 2-bedroom apartment was $4,550 in mid-December — still an inconceivable sum for most wage earners, yet down 2.5 percent from a year earlier. Likewise, the San Jose median of $2,550 was down 0.7 percent.

The Oakland median of $2,500, however, was up a modest 0.8 percent.

That’s all according to a new report from ApartmentList.com that tracks rents through Dec. 16.

“After a couple of years of scorching rent increases, rents are stabilizing or actually declining in many parts of the Bay Area,” said Andrew Woo, data scientist for ApartmentList.com.

He attributed the cooling to three factors: the construction of thousands of units of new housing for renters around the region, the typical seasonal slowdown in rent growth at year’s end, and the fact that “the market has already gone up so much that it can’t sustain any more rent increases.”

There were a few exceptions to the general trend, especially in a handful of East Bay markets where renters have flocked in search of something affordable. The result: The new competition has driven up rents by 8.1 percent year-over-year in Pleasanton, where the median 2-bedroom was $2,770, and by 6.8 percent in Concord, where the median was $1,900.

But elsewhere, the market softened, with rents either declining or moving up a smidgen, the website reported.

The median 2-bedroom unit went for $3,600 in Palo Alto, down 2.0 percent; for $3,440 in Redwood City, down 4.8 percent; for $3,040 in Daly City, up 1.7 percent; for $2,750 in Santa Clara, down 1.1 percent; for $2,390 in Fremont, down 0.5 percent; and for $2,300 in Campbell-Saratoga, down 1.4 percent.

Statewide, the numbers followed the same trend, even in large cities with the fastest rates of increase. Among the 10 biggest municipalities, Los Angeles — with a median 2-bedroom rent of $2,600 — led the pack with a 1.8 percent increase from a year earlier. Sacramento 2-bedrooms were up 1.7 percent to $1,200, and Fresno 2-bedrooms rose 1.2 percent to $870.

San Franciscans, in particular, might want to pay attention to those numbers.

Get a load of these median rents for 2-bedroom apartments in neighborhoods around the City by the Bay: South Beach, $5,500; Mission Bay $4,910; Pacific Heights, $4,880; Mission, $4,650; Nob Hill-Russian Hill, $4,500; Noe Valley-Castro, $4,400; Bernal Heights, $3,800; and the Outer/Central Sunset, a mere $,3,350.