Multifamily Market Shows Continued Strength

In a post two weeks ago about the most recent AIA ABI numbers, I wrote about multifamily projects are showing the most strength (the multifamily ABI is at 57; and ABI > 50 means an increase in architectural billings for that project type). Buried on page A8 of yesterday's Wall Street Journal is a graph that also shows how strong the multifamily market is. Basically, the graph shows the percentage of permits going to multifamily projects in select metropolitan areas in the U.S.:

New York City: 91.8%

San Francisco: 90.6%

Miami: 76.3%

San Jose: 73.7%

Los Angeles: 71.1%

Middlesex County, MA (west of Boston): 70.3%

Fort Lauderdale: 68.4%

Boston: 65%

San Diego: 64.9%

Newark: 61.1%

There are 38 tower cranes over San Francisco right now, so one can imagine the amount of units currently being constructed. The WSJ article states that in the case of Miami, the investment