In April, the total number of single-family homes that started construction was down 12% from a year ago, according to the most recent reading from the Census Bureau. But if you look a few columns over, you’ll see the number of buildings with five units or more — think: apartment buildings —was up nearly 29% from last year.
You could think of the uptick in apartment building construction starts as developers making a bet that lots of people won’t be able to buy anytime soon, so they’ll have to rent.
“Because people will always need some place to live,” said Macrina Wilkins, a senior research analyst at the Associated General Contractors of America, a trade group.
With home prices and mortgage rates both continuing to be high, she said a lot of would-be homebuyers are still renting. That means developers are willing to take risks.
“Construction financing is more expensive, but rents are still relatively elevated,” she said.
Tariffs could be another factor. Nathan Dagesse develops apartment buildings in and around Burlington, Vermont. He said all builders are worried about tariffs affecting construction costs in the future.
“And if they see a window where it’s like, ‘Hey, I think, I think we can make it work right now, you know, it’s time to go,’” he said.
Dagesse added that by the time a builder gets to the break-ground phase of an apartment, they’ve already sunk a substantial amount of time and money into it and might be thinking, “Let’s just get this done.”
