The sticker price of in-state tuition at four-year public universities climbed about $400 this fall, an increase of nearly 5 percent that brought the average to $8,655. That’s a modest increase compared to recent years but still painful for families with stagnant incomes after a prolonged economic slump.

Room-and-board charges grew by a comparable amount, raising the full cost for students living on campus to $17,860.

The latest annual figures from the College Board, out Wednesday, show only about one-third of full-time students pay that published price. The estimated net price — what students pay on average after accounting for grants and tax credits — remains considerably lower than the list price: about $2,910 for tuition at public four-year universities, and $12,110 including room and board.

But after several years when a wave of student aid from Washington held net prices mostly in check, real costs for students have now jumped two straight years, as that wave washes back from its high-water mark.

At private colleges, enrolling about one-quarter of four-year college students, list prices remained substantially higher: $39,518 on average, including room and board. During the previous three years, net prices at private colleges had declined. But this year net tuition and fees increased about $780. Including room and board, but factoring in aid, the typical student at a private college is paying $23,840.

At public two-year colleges, tuition and fees increased $172 to $2,959. On average, those costs are entirely covered by aid.

Altogether, the latest figures send mixed signals. They highlight that higher education, while increasingly essential economically, is devouring an ever-increasing share of family incomes, which are lower than a decade ago. But the numbers could also signal an inflection point where several unsustainable trends in costs, borrowing, and student aid at last begin to break, though it’s too soon to say for sure, said report co-author Sandy Baum of the College Board and George Washington University.

Prices were up this year, though at barely half the rate of the previous two years. Enrollment, after surging nationally for several years after the economy collapsed in 2008, has leveled off. Partly as a result, federal aid is also now declining slightly after several years of double-digit increases.

Even student borrowing, the source of much anxiety, declined last year by about 4 percent. Borrowing remained 24 percent higher than five years earlier, but the annual decline was the first in at least two decades.

Explanations could include debt aversion, more parents employed, or simply a decline in enrollment overall, particularly at for-profit colleges, where students typically borrow more than at other types of school.

“It’s not that college is cheaper,” Baum said. “It could be parents’ savings have come back a little so they’re able to help. It could be that they’re hesitant to borrow.”