The volume of applications hasn't really changed from a year ago, still dozens for every listing. What's shifted, for me at least, is how I feel about the process of picking between them.
Two years into a market this tight, you start to notice the same story repeating in application after application. Rent's eating a bigger share of income than it used to. People who'd have comfortably qualified three years ago are now right at the edge of what the numbers say they can afford.
I don't have a solution to that, and I'm aware a single landlord's tenant selection process isn't going to fix a citywide affordability problem. I just find myself thinking about it more than I used to, sitting with an application that technically clears my criteria but only just, and knowing that gap is the whole story of this market compressed into one spreadsheet.