RICHARDSON, TX—On a metro area basis, a few individual cities in the top 10 markets for apartment permits posted impressive year-over-year gains in October. On the whole, though, permit totals are plateauing, says RealPage.

Citing Census Bureau data, RealPage says local governments across the country approved 416,000 apartment units in the year-ending Oct. 31. That permitting activity, including 40,087 units authorized during the month of October, represents a 13.4% increase over September's annual volume—which was down 17.4% from the previous month—and a 12.2% decline from October 2016's annual total.

Four of the top 10 metros—Los Angeles; Washington, DC; Chicago; and Atlanta—issued fewer multifamily permits in the 12 months ending in October than they did in the preceding 12 months. Of these, only Atlanta represented a double-digit percentage decline. With annual authorization volume down 27.6% Y-O-Y to 9,400 units, Atlanta's permitting activity is continuing to slow down from the peak it reached in '16, with the October annual total comparing to 9,828 units in July, 9,792 in August and 9.846 in September.