New Multifamily Construction Booming in Small Markets

We typically report each month on the top 10 markets in the country for multifamily permitting in terms of units permitted. Often, many of the same markets appear each month like New York, Dallas, Los Angeles, Houston and Phoenix (April’s top five).

However, a mini-boom in multifamily permitting is occurring for several small markets, although, mainly as a percentage change from one year ago.

Of the top 10 markets for percent change in permitting, seven permitted 1,200 or more units in the past year. Jackson, MS’s 2000% increase is a change from 5 units in the year-ending April 2025 to just 108 units for this year.

Of those seven smaller markets with at least 1,200 units permitted in the past year, five increased their unit totals by 1,000 units or more for increases ranging from 233% to 409%.

Small markets with sudden sharp increases in multifamily permitting bear watching for potential oversupply, as their smaller inventories of existing units will face increased competition for new residents.

Fortunately, as a percentage of existing units, these top permit growth markets are typically adding only moderate amounts to their base inventories. Gainesville, FL is at the top with 6.1%, while Cleveland, Jackson, MS and Toledo, OH are each adding less than 1%.

Compared to the top five markets for permitting in unit count, New York, Dallas, Los Angeles, Houston and Phoenix run about 1.3% to 2.8% for inventory increases.

Three of the top five markets also had increases in their total permits of from 4,500 units to about 6,800 units. In addition to these top markets, other markets with significant increases in annual permitting include Miami (+4,178 units), Denver (+3,321 units), Washington, DC (2,682 units), Madison, WI (+2,639 units) and San Jose (+2,417 units).

Significant decreases in multifamily permitting over the past year for April occurred in San Antonio (-2,998 units), Orlando (-2,989 units), Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL (-2,225 units), Austin (-1,703 units), Newark (-1,459 units) and Boston (-1,431 units). Five other markets decreased annual permitting by about 1,000 to 1,300 units each.

With the annual increases in eight of the top 10 markets, the sum of permitted units for April’s top 10 of 148,078 units was up 23.7% for the year but down 1.0% for the month.

Permitting by Place

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

The city of Los Angeles returned at the #1 spot with more than 11,400 units permitted, far ahead of both The Bronx and Brooklyn boroughs with about 7,800 units each. Permitting continues to ramp up in the city of Columbus, OH with more than 7,600 units permitted for the year-ending April.

The cities of Miami, Phoenix and Austin each permitted roughly 6,000 units to 6,500 units, while the city of Denver and unincorporated Harris County (Houston) were each at about 5,400 units. The city of San Diego rounded out the top 10 with 5,229 units permitted.

The borough of Queens just missed the top 10 and the cities of Atlanta, Dallas and Houston returned among the top 20. Other individual cities with solid permitting for the year include Raleigh, Frisco, TX, Madison, WI and Fort Worth.

Led by an almost 1,000-unit increase in the city of Columbus, half of this month’s top permitting places had more units permitted for the year than last month, with an average increase of about 320 units. Conversely, the five other top 10 places averaged a decrease of about 430 units (-2,162 units total).

Texas again placed six of the top 20 permitting places on April’s list, followed by three of the five New York boroughs (Manhattan fell out), and only two cities in California. Although not among the top 10 metros for multifamily permitting in April, the cities of Columbus and San Diego still made the top permitting places list.