Residential building in November was $327.5 billion (annual rate), down 1% from October. Single family housing was unchanged from its October pace, staying basically at the plateau that’s been present for much of 2018. Multifamily housing receded 3% in November following its 20% rise in October, according to Dodge Data & Analytics.

“Amidst the monthly ups-and-downs, the construction start statistics show that on balance the construction industry expansion was still underway in 2018, although the rate of growth has slowed considerably from the 7% gains for total construction reported during 2016 and 2017,” said Robert Murray, chief economist for Dodge Data & Analytics. “With regard to residential building, multifamily housing has seen renewed growth in 2018 after its loss of momentum in 2017, but single-family housing has essentially plateaued following the advances registered at the outset of 2018.”

There were 10 multifamily projects valued at $100 million or more that reached groundbreaking in November, compared to 13 such projects in October. The large multifamily projects in November included the $215 million Victory Park Apartments in Dallas, the $200 million Spring Street North block development in Seattle, and the $160 million multifamily portion of a $190 million mixed-use development in Philadelphia. The top five metropolitan areas ranked by the dollar amount of multifamily starts in November were--New York, Washington, Boston, Los Angeles, and Seattle.

During the January-November period of 2018, residential building increased 6% compared to last year. Single family housing advanced 6%, showing some deceleration relative to the 9% gain reported during the first eleven months of 2017. By major region, this was the 2018 year-to-date pattern for the dollar amount of single-family housing--the West, up 10%; the South Atlantic, up 6%; the South Central, up 5%; the Midwest, up 2%; and the Northeast, unchanged from its 2017 amount.

Multifamily housing climbed 8% year-to-date, rebounding after the 7% decline reported during the first eleven months of 2017. Through the first 11 months of 2018, the top-five metropolitan areas ranked by the dollar amount of multifamily starts, with their percent change from a year ago, were New York, up 3%; Boston, up 80%; Washington DC, up 28%; Miami, up 46%; and Seattle, up 29%. Metropolitan areas ranked 6 through 10 were Los Angeles, down 25%; San Francisco, up 20%; Dallas-Ft. Worth, up 33%; Atlanta, down 17%; and Philadelphia, unchanged from its 2017 amount.