Both the Dallas-Plano-Irving and Fort Worth-Arlington metro areas hit 95.5% apartment occupancy in May, marking the third straight month they’ve been full, according to Axiometrics' definition. The Dallas area’s occupancy rate was 40 bps higher than the 95.1% reported in April, and 60 bps higher than May 2014’s 94.9%. Meanwhile, west of SH 360, the Fort Worth metro’s occupancy rate was 10 bps higher than April’s 95.4%, and 50 bps higher than the 95% from May 2014, according to the Axiometrics stats.

When it came to effective rent growth, however, the story was slightly different. While Dallas saw its annual effective rent growth rate tick up to 6.3%, a 37 bps increase from April’s 5.9%, Fort Worth’s 5.9% effective rent growth rate represented a 28 bps decrease from April’s 6.1%. The effective rent growth rate in both DFW metros was higher than it was in May 2014, when Dallas reported a 3.4% rent-growth rate and Fort Worth a 4.1% rate. Year-to-date rent growth for 2015 was 0.9% in Dallas, where renters paid an average of $1,038 for their units, and -0.5% in Fort Worth, where renters paid an average of $925 per unit.