Coastal Construction: Outsized Multifamily Construction Compared to Single-Family

As part of the recently published HBGI, new NAHB analysis of residential permit data shows that about a quarter of single-family construction takes place in coastal counties. Coastal counties, as defined by U.S. Census Bureau, are counties that are adjacent to coastal water or a territorial sea. These coastal counties are grouped into three regions:…

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Which Local Markets Track National Trends the Most: Multifamily Focus

After examining trends in single-family permits, we now turn our attention to multifamily permits to continue our exploration of correlations in housing permit data. Using multifamily permits from 2012-2022, five-year and ten-year correlations are used to create an association index for each Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) that describes how similar, or dissimilar, particular MSAs are…

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Multifamily Absorption Rates Fall for Third Quarter Completions; Share of Subsidized Units Rose in 2022

The Census Bureau’s latest release of the Survey of Market Absorption of New Multifamily Units (SOMA) estimates that 57% of 85,530 unsubsidized, unfurnished apartments completed in the third quarter of 2023 were absorbed within the first 3 months following construction completion. For condominiums, 68% of the estimated 5,571 units completed in the third quarter of…

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Multifamily Missing Middle Construction Unchanged

The missing middle construction sector includes development of medium-density housing, such as townhouses, duplexes and other small multifamily properties. The multifamily segment of the missing middle (apartments in 2- to 4-unit properties) has disappointed since the Great Recession. For the fourth quarter of 2023, there were just 4,000 2- to 4-unit housing unit construction starts. This is…

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Multifamily Developer Confidence in Negative Territory in Fourth Quarter

Confidence in the market for new multifamily housing was in negative territory for the fourth quarter, according to results from the Multifamily Market Survey (MMS) released today by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).  The MMS produces two separate indices.  The Multifamily Production Index (MPI) had a reading of 41 – below the break-even…

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Small Decline for Multifamily Built-for-Rent Share

According to NAHB analysis of quarterly Census data, the count of multifamily, for-rent housing starts declined somewhat during the fourth quarter of 2023. For the quarter, 102,000 multifamily residences started construction. Of this total, 98,000 were built-for-rent. The market share of rental units of multifamily construction starts fell back to a still elevated 96% for…

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