Sprung Planning Company Blog

November 3, 2013

Permit Analysis and Public Notice Trend

Legal Notice review supports trend that multi-family housing dominates new residential construction in New Jersey.

New Construction in New Jersey since 2000 has seen an even trend-line in multi-family housing while single family housing has been on a steady downward trajectory since 2005. Between January 2000 and August 31, 2013 (a one hundred fifty-two month period) there were 351,535 permits granted in the State.  Of these permits, 210,335 (59.8%) were for single family homes and the remaining 141,200 (40.2%) were for multi-family units.

NJ Building Permits 2000 – Aug. 2013

During the study period, single-family permits were at its highest in 2000 when 25,260 single-family permits were granted representing 73% of all residential building permits granted that year.  The number of single-family permits hovered around 22,000 annually for the next five years while the annual number of multi-family permits increased from 6,764 to a peak of 17,210 multi-family permits during that same period.  For the three years (2006 through and including 2008) the number of permits for single family and multi-family were close to even.  Between 2008 and 2009 there was a drop in both permit categories, however the loss was larger in the multi-family class.  2012 saw a 63% increase in multi-family permits, while the single-family permits increased 14% during the same period.

What was a single-family dominated market, has now transitioned to a multi-family market. The following chart shows the relationship between the two permit types as a percent of total annual permits.

Residential Permit Type

Based on the number of apartment, mixed-use and redevelopment proposals legal notices sent out through our Blog, it appears that the development community still believes in multi-family housing.

Let us know your thoughts.

Matt Sprung

Source of Permit Information:   NJ Department of Labor