In the second quarter,
The pace of multifamily residential construction grew by 14.3% on a year-over-year basis in small metropolitan urban core areas and by 25.5% in small metro suburban areas, Home Building Geography Index released by NAHB revealed. The index also showed a 20.5% uptick in multifamily construction in small towns or “micro counties.” In the largest cities, the rate of building slowed.
“Large metro core areas recorded a 0.5% year-over-year decline, reflecting the ongoing virus crisis’s baneful effects on housing in core counties of major metropolitan areas that started over a year ago,” said Litic Murali, NAHB economist, in the association's Eye on Housing blog.
But even with the growing number of multifamily units now being built in smaller communities, large metropolitan regions still account for 64.7% of all such constructions. Multifamily residences in the core of smaller cities and outlying counties as well as in small towns equaled 31.4%. According to NAHB, the rate of growth in the multifamily sector was moderately higher in counties with more
Single-family residential construction increased across all regional types, indicative of the
Outlying counties of large metro areas showed the greatest growth in single-family starts, climbing 36.3% year over year. Counties outside small metropolitan areas jumped 31.7% as well, with small metro core areas increasing by 28%. Large suburban counties experienced 31.2% growth and the rate of single-family construction climbed by 26.2% in core urban areas. Micro counties and those not categorized saw increases of 26.8% and 31.9%.
But Murali noted that the expansion of single-family construction was “partly inflated due to the dip that occurred in the prior year with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.”