Multifamily Permitting Falling Fast in Top Markets

Six of the top 10 metros for multifamily permits saw their totals fall in the year-ending January, with double-digit declines in all of them. The steepest percentage decreases occurred in Phoenix, Austin and Los Angeles with each reporting a decline of 33% to 42%. Washington, DC, Houston and Dallas fell by 13% to 16%, according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

However, the decline in multifamily units has not been uniform across the top permitting markets. The New York-White Plains metro division has been a perennial leader for the past few years and their 12-month total through January 2025 of 36,630 units led all markets again, an almost 60% increase from last January.

Atlanta also reported a significant increase in permitting from last year but there is some uncertainty about the accuracy of their reported permits in the post-pandemic period. Orlando and Seattle’s multifamily permitting increased slightly from one year ago.

Nine of last month’s top 10 permitting markets returned on January’s list. Orlando replaced Fort Worth on this month’s list and a few changed places. After New York’s 36,630 units, the next three markets permitted about 14,200 units each, less than half New York’s volume.

Houston and Phoenix permitted close to 12,000 units for the year, while the remaining top 10 markets were in the 8,700 to 10,000 units range.

In addition to New York, other markets with significant year-over-year increases in annual multifamily permitting in January were Fort Worth (+2,897 units), Chicago (+2,243 units), Milwaukee (+1,379 units), Atlanta (+1,332 units) and Newark (+1,127 units).

Markets with significant declines in multifamily permitting outside of the top 10 markets include Jacksonville (-5,300 units), Minneapolis/St. Paul (-5,177 units), Riverside (-4,269 units), Raleigh/Durham (-4,244 units), Denver (-4,176 units) and Nashville (-4,174 units). Nine other non-top 10 markets had decreases in permitting of 2,000 to 4,000 units.

The number of multifamily units permitted for construction in RealPage’s top 150 markets continues to shrink and has been below 400,000 units for the past six months, after peaking at more than 577,000 units in late-2022.

Below the metro level, nine of last month’s top 10 permit-issuing places returned to this month’s list with three remaining in the same place. The list of top individual permitting places (cities, towns, boroughs and unincorporated counties) generally include the principal city of some of the most active metro areas.

The borough of Brooklyn returned to the top permitting spot in January, followed by sister borough Bronx at #2 as the city of Austin fell to #4. The city of Atlanta remained at #3 and the city of Los Angeles also remained in its previous spot at #5.  Charlotte’s Mecklenburg County moved up two spots to #6, increasing their multifamily permitting by 744 units from December’s total.

The city of Fort Worth slipped one spot, and the city of San Diego moved up two, although both had slightly fewer units permitted through January than in December. New York’s Queens borough landed on this month’s list at #9, and with Manhattan at #19 among the top 20, multifamily permitting is apparently geographically diverse in the Big Apple. The city of Miami rounded out the top 10 with about 4,800 units permitted for the year.

This post is part of a series by RealPage Senior Real Estate Economist Chuck Ehmann analyzing residential permits and starts data from the U.S. Census Bureau. For more on this data, read previous posts in the Permits series.