Dive Brief:

• Thanks in part to the economy not generating enough jobs to make more people homeowners, the National Association of Home Builders says demand for multifamily housing – already well back from its 2006 slump – will continue to rise.
• At the organization's recently concluded International Builders' Show, Chief Economist David Crowe said he foresees 363,000 multifamily starts in 2015 in the U.S., well beyond 2013's 340,000, which also had been the expected long-term average.
• Difficulties in getting financing to buy are influencing some younger renters and also some older ones, but there is also a growing preference among the generation known as the "echo boomers" for renting.

Dive Insight:

Guy K. Hays, president of Legacy Partners Residential Inc. based in Foster City, Calif., said that speaking nationally, “... supply and demand are in balance" in multifamily, and in most markets, new units are in demand. Some markets are bringing multifamily units online at the same pace as 1996-2006.