Nat'l Institute for Occupational Safety, public domain, Wikipedia Commons

According to the annual Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies issued on Dec. 9, 2015 https://tinyurl.com/owxpqva, multifamily housing starts are rising. Multifamily starts were at a 401,000 unit annual rate in the first nine months of 2015, more than 3.5 times the all-time low of 108,900 units in 2009 and higher than at any point since the 1980s.

The pace of multifamily permitting exceeds pre-crisis levels in more than a third of the nation's 100 largest metros. Markets leading growth in permitting included San Jose, Austin, Houston and Dallas. Permitting has also rebounded strongly in Denver, Nashville, Raleigh, Seattle, Portland, Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.

The National Association of Home Builders Discusses Economics and Housing Policy (NAHB) data shows that total private residential construction spending for October increased to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $399 billion. On a month-over-month basis, private single-family spending was $226 billion, up by 1.6% over the revised September estimate. Private multifamily spending increased to $58 billion, up by 1.4%.

The NAHB-constructed spending index indicates the recent gains in have been driven by the steady increase in multifamily construction spending. While the pace of the multifamily spending fell 1.4% in October from relatively higher rates in August (8%) and September (6%), NAHB anticipates accelerating growth for single-family spending.