Washington, D.C.—Housing demand for not only single-family homes but multi-family developments as well continued to shift to lower-density, more affordable markets in the third quarter of 2020, according to data from the latest NAHB Homebuilding Geography Index (HBGI).
Multi-family construction has primarily occurred in large metro area core (40%), suburban counties (26%) and small metro area core counties (22%), with the former two experiencing drop-offs of 4.9% and 4.2%, respectively, as telecommuting and virus-related impacts have increased. In contrast, the market share for apartment construction in small metro core areas increased from 21.4% in the second quarter to 22.4% in the third quarter, with the largest gains in multi-family development occurring in small towns (19%) and rural areas (23%).