Multi and Single-Family are Neck and Neck

Multifamily has been recovering quickly since the Great Recession and consistently has had more units under construction since 2013, but an analysis by National Association of Home Builders shows that single-family construction recently closed that gap.

The gap has been diminishing since early 2017 and as of June it closed, thanks due to an acceleration of single-family home building during the second half of 2020. As of July, there were 690,000 apartments under construction…and 691,000 single-family homes.
There are a lot dynamics underneath these statistics of course, including longer multifamily build times, lengthening construction times for all kinds of housing, single-family construction cooling in 2021, and a rebound for multifamily development this year. On net, we could see these data series remain close for the next few quarters.

Nonetheless, this stat does reveal the degree of gains for single-family home building at the end of 2020 and the start of 2021, as well the lengthening of cycle construction times in the sector. As a result, in August there were 702,000 single-family homes in the construction pipeline: the most since July 2007.