The Census Bureau estimates that 255,600 multifamily housing units were completed in 2014 in buildings with at least five or more units, representing a 37.3% increase over the previous year and the highest total in those multi-unit structures since 2009.
And now an analysis of Census data by the National Association of Home Builders finds that, over the past five years, the number of completions in buildings with 50 or more units has continued to climb to where it hit 48% of total completions last year.
NAHB economist Robert Dietz notes that this trend toward larger multifamily buildings has been evident since 1996 (see chart below), after reaching a data series low of 8% in 1994 and 1995, and retrenching in 2009 and 2010 as a result of the housing recession.
Dietz also observes that completions in buildings with 20 or more units have been “well above” 50% since 2001, and accounted for 83% of the total last year.
Conversely, multifamily completions in units with nine or fewer units accounted for a relatively insignificant share of total construction last year. This would suggest that Census might need to rethink how it publicly reports its housing data, which to this point only show starts and completions for buildings with “five or more” units.
It’s worth noting, however, that multifamily construction activity in general appears to be peaking. For August, Census’s preliminary estimate for annualized completions in structures with five units or more stood at 283,000, up 0.4% from August 2014. And multifamily starts were actually down by 2.3% to 381,000.
Related Stories
Multifamily Housing | Oct 16, 2019
Covenant House New York will support the city’s homeless youth
FXCollaborative designed the building.
Multifamily Housing | Oct 16, 2019
A new study wonders how many retiring adults will be able to afford housing
Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies focuses on growing income disparities among people 50 or older.
Multifamily Housing | Oct 14, 2019
Eleven, Minneapolis’ tallest condo tower, breaks ground
RAMSA designed the project.
| Oct 11, 2019
Tips on planning for video surveillance cameras for apartment and condominium projects
“Cameras can be part of a security program, but they’re not the security solution itself.” That’s the first thing to understand about video surveillance systems for apartment and condominium projects, according to veteran security consultant Michael Silva, CPP.
Multifamily Housing | Oct 9, 2019
Multifamily developers vs. Peloton: Round 2... Fight!
Readers and experts offer alternatives to Peloton bicycles for their apartment and condo projects.
Multifamily Housing | Oct 7, 2019
Plant Prefab and Brooks + Scarpa design scalable, multifamily kit-of-parts
It is Plant Prefab’s first multifamily system.
Multifamily Housing | Oct 3, 2019
50 Penn breaks ground in New York, will provide 218 units of affordable housing
Dattner Architects is designed the project.
Multifamily Housing | Sep 12, 2019
Meet the masters of offsite construction
Prescient combines 5D software, clever engineering, and advanced robotics to create prefabricated assemblies for apartment buildings and student housing.
Multifamily Housing | Sep 10, 2019
Carbon-neutral apartment building sets the pace for scalable affordable housing
Project Open has no carbon footprint, but the six-story, solar-powered building is already leaving its imprint on Salt Lake City’s multifamily landscape.