I believe this is almost deliberate misdirection of the authors, but maybe they believe what they write.

I'm fairly sure if you looked at a slightly longer timeframe, you'd see prices for all go up, and even more for the expensive units.

Just looking at the latest 12 months really does not paint a useful picture.

I expected the WaPo to do a better job, esp since I believe their point that low income renters are being unfairly squeezed is probably a valid one.