Residential Construction Splits: Multifamily Starts in 2022 Jump to Highest since 1980s Boom, Single-Family Starts Drop
Construction starts of multifamily projects, such as condo and apartment buildings, with five or more units jumped by 14.5% in 2022 from the prior year, to 529,000 units, according to data from the Census Bureau
In many densely populated cities and urban cores, multifamily is just about the only type of housing that is getting built, and much of it is higher end
Construction starts of single-family houses fell by 10.6% in 2022, to 1.01 million houses, after a decade of increases
Homebuilders sit on huge inventories, which is why they have cut back
The slowdown shows up in single-family starts first, and well before it’ll show up in multifamily due to the long lead times with these big construction projects