Houston's skyrocketing apartment rents could be starting to moderate, a real estate developer said Tuesday during a panel discussion on the multifamily housing industry.

Brandt Bowden, managing partner of capital markets at Houston-based Hanover Co., said he's seen a "downtick in Houston rents" over the last 90 days, though he hasn't noticed any serious signs of a slowdown.

"There are not huge concessions ... but we have seen evidence of rent erosion," Bowden said during a luncheon at the Junior League hosted by CREW Houston, a chapter of the Commercial Real Estate Women Network.

Research from Apartment Data Services, which tracks supply and demand in the Houston area, still shows rents rising. Across the Houston area, they are up 6.5 percent over the last 12 months, the data firm reported. In the last three months, rents are up 11.2 percent on an annualized basis.

"It's still going up. A lot of people are still moving to Houston," said panelist Alan Patton, president of the Morgan Group.

His company builds in urban locations where there is a growing demand from young renters who want to live near their friends, close to their jobs, and in areas where they can walk to restaurants, bars and shops. While many of those renters are recent college graduates, highly paid professionals are also entering the market at a fast clip.

"Very high-paying jobs are coming from places like California and New York," Patton said.

Sue Ansel, president and CEO of Atlanta-based Gables, said units in the company's West Ave pro-ject at Westheimer and Kirby leased at rents higher than the company had initially projected.

Gables is building in the area again just behind West Ave. The new project, called Gables River Oaks, will have 302 apartments. Unlike West Ave, it will not have retail space.

Overall occupancy across the Houston-area apartment market is nearly 91 percent, and developers have been furiously building to meet the demand for units.

The construction is concentrated inside the 610 Loop and just west of it. That's led some to question the amount of new building.

"My concern is the in-town, ultra-luxury," said panelist Paul Forbes, principal of Allen Harrison Co. "How deep is that market?"

Based on supply and demand patterns in Houston over the past 20 years, five jobs are needed for every new apartment, Bowden said.

If developers build between 16,000 and 18,000 units this year, that would require at least 80,000 jobs.

Brandt said he has heard job projections in the 70,000 range.

"We probably are going to experience some amount of oversupply," he said.