Apartment Construction Starts Plummet To 15-Year Low

The multifamily construction pipeline has taken a nosedive to numbers that haven’t been seen in a decade and a half, according to Apartments.com and CoStar. 

Roughly 55,000 units broke ground across the U.S. during the first quarter, the lowest quarterly volume since 2011, as higher development and financing costs and a slowdown in rent growth have limited new construction. 

Only about 579,000 units were underway at the end of the quarter, a 50% decline from the 2023 peak and also back to levels last seen in the mid-2010s.

The free fall in starts comes despite a record wave of office-to-residential conversions sparked by a looming wall of $213B in office loans maturing this year. There are 90,300 units underway via these types of conversions, a 28% increase over a record 2024...   ...more

RSK: Not quite as many cranes in the skyline but there seems to be many in the pipeline here in Madison.