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Dallas-area apartment building permits are down

But 12-month decline isn’t as bad as the national slowdown from the pandemic.

The Dallas area had the largest drop in permits for new apartments of any of the 10 largest U.S. markets.

But the local decline was significantly less than the nationwide fall-off in multifamily building permits compared with a year ago, U.S. census figures show.

The Dallas area was still the fifth-largest apartment-building market in the country based on annual building permits for the year ending in August.

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“You’ll see that multifamily permits came in at roughly 13,800 in the year ending August 2020, which is down 16.8% year-over-year,” said RealPage’s Adam Couch. "Expanding on this a bit further, the annual decline of multifamily permits isn’t all that concerning in metro Dallas.

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“Levels are now normalizing after experiencing record highs over the past few years. The number of multifamily permits should remain among the country’s strongest as the economy recovers.”

Nationwide multifamily building permits were down 28.5% for the 12-month period ending in August. Starts were down almost 17%.

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Apartment building permits were flat for the year in Houston, and multifamily building permits were up almost 35% in the Austin area for the year ending in August.

The Dallas-Fort Worth rental market has outperformed expectations during the pandemic. While rents in the area are down 1% to 3% year-over-year, occupancy levels have not fallen and leasing activity rebounded in the past two months.

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“Several economic tailwinds continue to exist in North Texas, such as leading the nation for population growth,” Couch said. “These new residents, most notably from New York and California, tend to rent an apartment for at least a few years.”

Dallas-Fort Worth is one of the country’s top apartment-building markets, with more than 40,000 units under construction.

The Dallas area ranked fifth for multifamily building permits.
The Dallas area ranked fifth for multifamily building permits.(RealPage )