Lakewood goes through different tekufos in terms of rentals. There are times when there is a lot of building. When that happens, there is a surplus of apartments. There are other times when there is less building. When that happens, there are not enough apartments.
There was a period of time a few years ago when it was next to impossible to find an apartment for rent in Lakewood. It was during that period of time when people started to move to Tom’s River (although there may be other reasons as well).
For the past half a year (maybe a bit longer – I don’t know when it started), there have been a surplus of apartments so the prices have gone down.
But presumably, this can change again. It goes by how much building is being done (that’s what I was told by the Masa u’matan guy when I called him to ask him when the best time to look for an apt. for rent is).