For high-end apartments in the Washington area, signs of a renters market

North Bethesda Market, a retail and residential complex in White Flint. (Photo by Amanda Voisard/For the Washington Post)

Banners hanging from roofs, flyers stuck on parked cars and signs on streetcorners are all delivering the same message: All those fancy new apartments going up in and around Washington? The rentsmay begoing down.

The booming Washington apartment market, which a few years ago ran hotter than ever before, has slowed. In some neighborhoods there are so many new units in the worksthat developers have lowered their rent expectations or evenput constructionplans on hold.

Many of the new buildings are going up in neighborhoods that are subject of high-profile economic development efforts. In Tysons Corner, 1,721 apartments were recently completed or are under construction (not counting subsidized units). In NoMa, north of Union Station, 1,820 units were recently completed or are under construction. Around Nationals Park, the boom is even bigger, with 2,242 units recently opened or on the way.

All those new units might suggest a glut is building in the market, but that doesnt necessarily mean everyones rents will be pushed down. In fact, rents across the board went up 1 percent in 2014 andrent increasesfor lower income earners have rapidly outpaced earnings, according to a new report by anadvocacy group, the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute. In a decade, the number of apartments in D.C. renting for less than $800 fell about 42 percent,the report said.Mayor Muriel E. Bowser has made affordability a central focus of her administration.

But most experts see a growing number ofsoft spots in the market forhigh-end units think floor-to-ceiling windows, stainless steel appliances and roof-top pools that have driven the regions commercial real estate boom. Real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield, for instance, reported at the end of last year thatthe building boom could induce modest declines in rents in2015.

Some building owners areaggressively discounting rent by 10 percent or moreor giving a month or two free up front, not to mention gimmicks such as putting a communal English bulldog in the lobby.

Good news for renters: High-endapartments are being built more quickly than they are being rented. (Delta Associates)

White Flint, an evolving stretch of Rockville Pike north of Bethesda, offers a case study ofwhat happenswhen competition gets tight.

The one-and-a-half mile section of Rockville Pike is Montgomery Countys answer to Tysons Corner when it comes to offering recent college graduates and other apartment seekers a neighborhoodwith the promise of Metro access and coming attractions like farmers markets, beer gardens, sidewalk cafes and dog parks. With the support of county officials and members of the community, a collection of like-minded developers banded together and began plotting a series of more urban neighborhoodsaround a Red Line Metro station that could attract condo buyers and luxury apartment renters.

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For high-end apartments in the Washington area, signs of a renters market