The cost of renting an apartment continued to rise across the Bay Area in the first quarter of 2016, though the rate of increase appears to be slowing after years of dizzying hikes.

In fact, the days of double-digit increases may be on the wane, according to a new report from Novato-based RealFacts. It shows that the average apartment in the nine-county region rents for $2,482 a month, up 7.1 percent from the first quarter of 2015. That’s a significant increase, though not as steep as the one reported last quarter, when the year-over-year rise was nearly 10 percent.

The tapering increases are an indication of “resistance by the consumer,” said Sarah Bridge of RealFacts. “They’re just saying that they’re paying way too much. There’s just not enough affordable housing anywhere.”

San Francisco continues to be the most costly market. The average apartment there rents for $3,620 a month, though the rate of increase has slowed to 4.7 percent, a sign that some tenants have said “enough” and are moving to surrounding cities. Those include Oakland, where the average apartment now rents for $2,866, and the rate of increase was 7.2 percent — though that was down from the 13.7 percent year-over-year rise reported last quarter.

In San Jose, the average apartment now rents for $2,473, up 8.6 percent on a year-over-year basis. If you’re looking for a relative bargain, try Concord, where a studio apartment runs $1,385 a month and a one-bedroom flat runs $1,474.

Overall, “rentals are still a good alternative to the $6,000 (monthly) mortgage,” Bridge said. In the context of recent rent control measures in San Jose, Oakland and elsewhere, she reiterated, the slowing indicates “that there’s an awful lot of pushback from consumers.”

“And it’s not about the apartments’ builders; their costs are high, and they’re trying to make their return,” Bridge said. “It’s just the dynamics of the market right now that make it tough for consumers to find a reasonable — forget affordable — rental.”

The regional leveling off is “a good thing,” said Jeffrey M. Mishkin, regional manager at the San Francisco office of Marcus and Millichap, a real estate brokerage firm.

“The last three years we’ve lived through two to three times the normal rates of increases in rents,” he said. “It’s still a healthy economy, and it feels like a healthy rental market. But trend-wise and anecdotally, San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose all seem to be experiencing a little slowdown in the rate of increase — a flattening, not necessarily a dip.”

Even with the leveling, prices are still out of sight for residents without tech industry incomes.

“I’m definitely seeing people pushed to the fringes,” said Stefan Warmuth, whose job at a music store in Alameda includes sales and administrative work. “I know people who are going to San Francisco State who live in Dublin or Santa Rosa. Plenty of people definitely are scrambling, wanting to move to San Francisco but going to Daly City — or Oakland, like me.”

Not long ago, he and a friend considered sharing a $1,200 room in Redwood City. He balked and now pays $650 for a room of his own in a refurbished, four-bedroom house that he shares with friends on the edge of the Fruitvale neighborhood in East Oakland.

According to RealFacts, average first-quarter rents were up 6.2 percent year-over-year in Santa Clara County, where the average apartment rents for $2,610 a month; 6.4 percent in San Mateo County ($2,851); 9.1 percent in Contra Costa County ($1,891); and 8.9 percent in Alameda County ($2,264).

Here are a few other highlights of the report:

A typical studio apartment rents for $1,802 in San Jose, $1,970 in Mountain View, $2,042 in Oakland and $2,114 in Pleasanton. A tenant moving up to an apartment with two bedrooms and two baths would pay $2,792 in San Jose, $3,513 in Mountain View, $3,615 in Oakland and $2,543 in Pleasanton.