Multifamily Starts Rise Sharply in July, Permits Level Off
New York remained the top multifamily market in July with 30,618 units permitted.
Despite a sharp increase in multifamily starts in July to 363,000 units, the category and permits have continued to slow from peak levels in 2022.
Annualized multifamily starts were up 11.7% in July, but still down 21.8% from the same time last year, according to an analysis by RealPage of U.S. Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development data. Permits decreased 12.4% for the month and 18.2% for the year to 408,000 units and appear to be leveling off close to the average of about 420,000 units from 2013 to 2020, according to the analysis.
The annual rate for multifamily permitting decreased in three of four Census regions compared with last year. The deepest decline was in the West, which was down 28.9% to 92,000 units. Permitting in the South declined by 20.4% to 200,000 units and the Midwest declined by 16.3% to 53,000 units. The Northeast was the only region with an increase in permitting, up 13.7% to 65,000 units, the analysis said.
Multifamily starts also increased for the year in the Northeast region, up 125.3% to 107,000 units. Starts were down in the West by 63.3% to 49,000 units, the Midwest was down 33.3% to 33,000 units and the South was down 25.5% to 174,000 units.
New York remained the top multifamily market in July with 30,618 units permitted. That was up about 20% from last year and up more than 5% from June. Austin followed the city with 19,262 units permitted, up about 13% from last year and about 2% from last month. Phoenix came in at No. 3 with 16,634 units permitted, down 5.3% from June and 12% from last July, according to the report.
Meanwhile, multifamily permitting continued to slow rapidly in Dallas with 12,555 units permitted, down 9,877 units from last year and 1,100 units less than in June.
The annualized rate for multifamily completions continued to exceed both permits and starts at 473,000 units, a month-over-month decrease of 24.4% but an increase of 49.2% year over year. The number of multifamily units currently under construction slipped 1.5% for the month to 870,000 units, down 13.3% from last year.
The number of multifamily units authorized but not started was unchanged from last month and last year.