New Housing Starts Reveal Shift Toward Multi-Family Housing Construction

AP reports on the Anderson Forecast from UCLA that looks into CA's housing slump and shows two distinct markets, one on the rise and the other (single-family housing) falling.

1 minute read

June 16, 2011, 11:00 AM PDT

By Irvin Dawid


The Anderson Forecast explains that the upswing in multi-family construction is a result of a younger clientele that "prefers urban-style apartment and condo living." It sees no increase in demand for single family home construction.

"What we've seen is this shift toward multifamily housing demand," said the forecast's author, Jerry Nickelsburg. "You can see that in the demographics."

While single-family and multi-family dwellings both fell 20 percent in mid-2009 from 2006, the latter "recovered to about 40 percent of their peak level, while single-family permits continue to decline, the report said." Similar results appear nation-wide, according to AP.

Joel Kotkin disputes the report's findings.

"Most of the growth in California has been in places with single family homes. Doesn't that tell us something about what people want?" he said.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011 in AP via Bloomberg Business Week

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