July Sees Slump In Multifamily Starts
August 16, 2017 | Paul Bubny | GlobeSt.com
WASHINGTON, DC—A sharp drop in construction starts for multifamily properties brought groundbreakings overall down by 4.8% during July, according to data released Wednesday by the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The 15.3% seasonally adjusted monthly drop in starts for buildings with five or more units continued a deteriorating trend in multifamily construction and compared with a 0.5% decline in single-family starts.
Other metrics in the July residential construction data also pointed to weakness in multifamily. Year-over-year, groundbreakings on apartment properties are off 35.2%.
Permitting for multifamily is also down, although to a lesser extent. Authorizations were off 11.2% from the previous month, while the single-family category was flat compared to June. Again, the decline in multifamily permitting was behind an overall drop of 4.1%.
