If you live in a major U.S. city and look out over the skyline, chances are good youll see construction cranes. Lots of them. Only twice in the past 25 years have new apartment buildings been going up as fast as they are right now. Thats not necessarily a good omen. The first time, in February 2000, was right before the dot-com bubble burst. The second time, January 2006, came right before the housing bubble burst. Now we learn that builders broke groundon 423,000 new multifamily units inJuly, right before who knows what?

Monthly building data released earlier this week by the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development showed that new home construction overall posted strong gains in July, with the highest number of new home starts in eight months. The comeback largely manifested in an uptick in apartment buildings with five or more units, which saw an almost 50 percent increase in new starts in July over a year earlier. By comparison, starts on single-family homes were up only about 10 percent over the same period.

Thats part of the reason that the Northeast, with its large, dense cities, saw the biggest monthly increase, up 44 percent from June. That matches the analysis byTrulia (TRLA) Chief Economist Jed Kolko, who found that among metro areas, Boston and New York are building more than in the past.

In the 25 years since 1989, the U.S. has started building at an average annual rate of about 248,000 new multifamily units. By that measure, our current 423,000 is a veritable boom. Still, construction in the the U.S. has come at a far faster pace in the past. During the 25 years leading up to 1989, builders broke ground on 467,000 units each year, on average. In the early 1970s, the rate briefly hit 1 million new units a year.

The recent building spree is a response to the current urban housing crunch. For a good part of the last quarter-century, the suburbs absorbed the growing population. They ran out of steam in the early 2000s, and citieswith mass transit and cultural cachethave made a comeback. As these new apartments come online, rents may ease. Just how much depends on just what kind of omen the figures for July 2014 turn out to be.

Originally posted here:
Apartment Construction Ominously Nears 25-Year High

In the four years since the approval of the Downtown Columbia Plan a master guiding document aimed at revitalizing the heart of Howard County's core city Columbia Town Center's progress toward becoming a true urban destination has been marked by the addition of high-profile restaurants and retailers, the renovation and expansion of city landmarks and the construction of a new, modern apartment building.

This week, its progress will be marked by what some say is the biggest boon so far: the opening of the county's first Whole Foods Market, which occurred Wednesday inside the community's iconic, Frank Gehry-designed lakefront building.

But, according to county officials, the revitalization is not just about adding mouth-watering restaurants, high-end retail and arguably the nation's most coveted grocer. It's also about putting in the work and making downtown a thriving employment center.

"There has to be more than just some great retail and cool apartments," said Mark Thompson, the county's director of downtown redevelopment. "For the Downtown Columbia Plan to be successful, the employment piece needs to be there. And it needs to be there in a big way."

And although it hasn't been as obvious, downtown's growth as a destination for employers has grown in lock step with its other, higher-profile amenities. According to Thompson, in spring 2012 the vacancy rate for the 19 office buildings in downtown was 21 percent. In just two years, that number has dropped to 14 percent. If you exclude the American City Building a nine-story lakefront structure with high vacancies that owner Howard Hughes Corp. is in the midst of evaluating Thompson said that number drops to 8 percent.

It's a trend that he and others, such as County Executive Ken Ulman, say shows progress in the revitalization of the downtown's employment base.

"Town Center, like any downtown, can only thrive when it has balance," Ulman said. "There has been a lot of demand for retail in downtown, and the residential is coming along. ... but the important third leg of the stool has to be the office product."

Ulman said one tangible sign of progress was the July groundbreaking of Little Patuxent Square, a nine-story, mixed-use building in the lakefront neighborhood that will house 160,000 square feet of office space, in addition to residential and retail. The structure, built by Costello Construction, was the first new commercial building in downtown in more than a decade.

"Costello's project was important because it's a sign that the demand is there," Ulman said. "It's a really important validation of the economy."

Renovations and relocations

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Downtown Columbia burgeoning as employment hub

Apartment construction in July hit a 25-year high, fueling the months pickup in housing while single-family home construction increased modestly. U.S. home construction, typically volatile month to month, increased 15.7 percent last month, the fastest pace since November after declines of 4 percent in June and 7.4 percent in May, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.

And while single-family building permits increased just 0.8 percent in July versus the year-earlier period, apartment permits increased 17.5 percent over the same period, according to Commerce Department data.

The surge in apartment construction fuels less economic growth nationally than a comparable rise in single-family homes because single-family housing multiplies consumer spending and job growth more, according to Diane Swonk, chief economist of Mesirow Financial.

We tend to see more employment and spillover spending from owner than renters, but it is still a move in the right direction, she blogged Tuesday.

Home owners tend to buy more furniture and home improvement products than apartment renters, for example.So the overall gain in construction, a sector the Federal Reserve keeps a close eye on as an indicator of the economys health, will impact spending, production and employment less than in the past.

The apartment surge is still a positive sign for job growth, but economists hope more renters will save enough for down payments or qualify for mortgages to buy homes. Rising rents may push renters onto the single-family housing market. According to the Labor Department, rents rose in July at their fastest pace in five years, a 3.3 percent rise from a year ago.

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US Apartment Construction Hits 25-Year High, Supporting July's Housing Gains

NASHUA Fourteen people were forced from their homes and one person was taken to a local hospital as Nashua Fire Rescue fought a blaze late Tuesday night at 84 Palm Street.

Firefighters report they arrived around 10 p.m. after initially being dispatched to the corner of Pine and West Hollis Streets. Crews found flames coming from the top left floor of the 3 1/2 story, multi-family apartment building. All the residents had left the building. ... Subscribe or log in to read more

NASHUA Fourteen people were forced from their homes and one person was taken to a local hospital as Nashua Fire Rescue fought a blaze late Tuesday night at 84 Palm Street.

Firefighters report they arrived around 10 p.m. after initially being dispatched to the corner of Pine and West Hollis Streets. Crews found flames coming from the top left floor of the 3 1/2 story, multi-family apartment building. All the residents had left the building.

An additional ladder truck, engine and firefighters were called to assist at the scene. The fire was extinguished and a female resident was taken to Southern New Hampshire Medical Center in Nashua.

Deputy Chief Kevin Kerrigan said Wednesday that it was a situation of typical urban firefighting, with challenging access to the building due to parked cars and overhead utility lines at the scene. Additional manpower, brought when the first firefighters reported a working fire, meant ground ladders could be placed around the building and additional help applied in getting hoses to the attic. There were four apartments in the building, the deputy chief said.

Kerrigan also said the building is balloon construction, typical to that period and location, which meant the fire can travel through the many voids in the building.

American Red Cross volunteers Karen Dudley, Michelle McFadden and Nancy Zahornasky responded to provide lodging and clothing to five adults and four children residing at the Palm Street apartment building.

The American Red Cross New Hampshire Disaster Action Team is comprised of volunteers who are available to respond at any time of day or night to disasters in their communities or surrounding towns provide disaster relief and emotional comfort to those affected by emergencies or disasters. All American Red Cross disaster assistance is free, made possible by voluntary donations of time and money from people in our communities.

The cause of Tuesdays fire is under investigation.

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Fire renders parts of Nashua apartment building uninhabitable after flames doused Tuesday night

Developer Mill Creek Residential Trust has started work on its next Dallas project a 179-unit apartment complex on North Central Expressway.

The seven-story rental project is being built on the site of a two-story office building on North Central just south of Fitzhugh Avenue.

Weve already started demolition on the building, Darren Schackman, Mill Creek executive managing director, said Monday.

The apartment building, planned north of downtown Dallas, was designed by architect Hensley Lamkin Rachel Inc., which also did Mill Creeks Avenue H apartments under construction nearby at North Central and Hester Street.

Schackman said the 208-unit Avenue H project opens next month. We have had good early interest in it, he said.

The companys next development at North Central and Elizabeth Street wont be finished until the start of 2016.

Mill Creek is just about done with the 378-unit Arpeggio rental complex it built in Victory Park in partnership with Addison-based investor Behringer.

Its been extremely well-received and has leased up better than expected, Schackman said.

Mill Creek was formed in 2010 by former top officers of Trammell Crow Residential. Since then, the company has developed more than 12,300 apartment homes in 42 locations.

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7-story apartment block will replace old offices on North Central Expressway

A 3-year-old California boy who has spent the past year battling cancer had his dream come true Tuesday by spending the day at a real, live construction site.

Renzo Lombardi of Seaside, California, was named honorary foreman at ground zero of a high-rise apartment building in San Francisco, where he was carried around by the sites real foreman and got to operate a crane himself.

The people kind of made him a little nervous at first but as soon as the foreman got him in with the construction equipment, he lit up, Renzos dad, Vince Lombardi, told ABC News. His mom and I were nonexistent at that time.

Courtesy Swinerton Builders/Trinity Properties

PHOTO: Renzo Lombardi's wish to be a construction foreman was granted by Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area.

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He was waving and smiling, which was wonderful to see because most of his second year of life, we were locked down at home, Lombardi said.

Doctors discovered a 3-pound Wilms tumor on Renzos left kidney in June of last year. He underwent surgery to remove both his tumor and his left kidney and then spent about 20 weeks undergoing chemotherapy treatments.

Courtesy Swinerton Builders/Trinity Properties

Excerpt from:
Boy's Construction Foreman Wish Granted

Ann Cammell cant wait for The Lauren apartment building in Vancouvers West End to finally be built.

Not because she wants to live in the new 22-storey monolithic tower, but because Cammell wants the construction the jackhammering, the noise and the rumblings that she has put up with for two years to stop.

Its been a bit of a trial, Cammell said. It gives you a headache when it goes on and on and on.

While the noise can seem non-stop, most Metro Vancouver municipalities dont allow construction on Sundays.

In fact, its written in their noise bylaws that such work can only be done Monday to Friday usually from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and on Saturdays, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., although the times vary from city to city.

Surrey, for instance, allows construction at 9 a.m. on Saturdays, while Richmond doesnt give its residents a break on Sundays and holidays, allowing construction from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

But there are exceptions to every rule and it seems some cities, including Surrey and Vancouver, are willing to bend them.

For a fee Vancouver charges between $148 to $296 and Surrey $50 the cities allow companies to apply for an exemption of the bylaws so they can work extended hours, including Sundays. The reason, city officials say, is to get infrastructure projects built more quickly, or at a time when there is less traffic and fewer people on the streets.

We have a fair share of construction projects that have to go outside the noise hours because theyre large capital projects, said Jas Rehal, Surreys manager of bylaws and licensing. We look at all the projects. If we feel its not time-sensitive or required outside normal noise hours, well reject it.

Rehal didnt know offhand how many exemptions Surrey has issued in the past year, but said I signed off on a couple in the last few weeks.

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Relentless construction annoys neighbours in Metro Vancouver

Ann Cammell can't wait for The Lauren apartment building in Vancouver's West End to finally be built.

Not because she wants to live in the new 22-storey monolithic tower, but because Cammell wants the construction - the jackhammering, the noise and the rumblings that she has put up with for two years - to stop.

"It's been a bit of a trial," Cammell said. "It gives you a headache when it goes on and on and on."

While the noise can seem non-stop, most Metro Vancouver municipalities don't allow construction on Sundays.

In fact, it's written in their noise bylaws that such work can only be done Monday to Friday - usually from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. - and on Saturdays, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., although the times vary from city to city.

Surrey, for instance, allows construction at 9 a.m. on Saturdays, while Richmond doesn't give its residents a break on Sundays and holidays, allowing construction from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. But there are exceptions to every rule and it seems some cities, including Surrey and Vancouver, are willing to bend them.

For a fee - Vancouver charges between $148 to $296 and Surrey $50 - the cities allow companies to apply for an exemption of the bylaws so they can work extended hours, including Sundays. The reason, city officials say, is to get infrastructure projects built more quickly, or at a time when there is less traffic and fewer people on the streets.

"We have a fair share of construction projects that have to go outside the noise hours because they're large capital projects," said Jas Rehal, Surrey's manager of bylaws and licensing. "We look at all the projects. If we feel it's not time-sensitive or required outside normal noise hours, we'll reject it."

Rehal didn't know offhand how many exemptions Surrey has issued in the past year, but said "I signed off on a couple in the last few weeks."

Vancouver, however, issued 112 noise exemptions to allow work on a Sunday over the year - 63 of those for construction work at the Main Street-Terminal Avenue SkyTrain Station. Only 25 applications were denied, with about half due to late notice and the rest for an inability to provide a valid or acceptable reason.

Continue reading here:
Relentless construction annoys neighbours

Its no secret that the apartment sector has been on a tear.

A big share of Julys gain in housing construction came from the multifamily sector, which tends to be fairly volatile on a monthly basis.

But looking at a rolling 12-month total of multifamily starts without any seasonal adjustment shows that construction for the year ended July reached its highest level since 1989, according to Commerce Department data released Tuesday.

Big gains in apartment construction are less bullish for economic growth than a comparable rise in single-family construction, notes Diane Swonk, chief economist of Mesirow Financial, because single-family housing has a bigger multiplier effect for both consumer spending and job growth.

We will take what economic activity we can get, but our housing market model was designed in the U.S. to build a lot of single-family homes for owners, not multifamily homes for renters, Ms. Swonk wrote Tuesday.

Single-family construction improved in July but has been softer than expected this year. Single-family building permits, for example, are up just 0.8% through July versus the year-earlier period, compared to a 17.5% year-to-date gain for apartment permits.

Still, the surge in apartments offers further evidence that job gains are boosting household formation and that the housing market faces a shelter shortage that will require more constructionfor renting or for owning. The hope is that eventually more of these renters will buy homes.

Rising rents could eventually give potential homebuyers added urgency. A separate report Tuesday showed that rents were rising at their fastest pace in five years in July, up 3.3% from a year earlier. That compares to a 2.8% gain last July, according to the Labor Department.

Many Americans have opted to rent because they dont have enough savings for a down payment or they cant qualify for a mortgage. Others may prefer the flexibility that comes with signing a lease.

Its little mystery, then, why apartment company stocks have been on a tear. Shares of Equity Residential and AvalonBay Communities closed Tuesday at their highest levels since the companies went public in 1993 and 1994, respectively.

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With Rentals in Fashion, Apartment Construction Hits 25-Year High

Artist's rendering of Murfey Constructions latest project in Hillcrest, which will break ground in September 2014. (Courtesy)

By Marti Gacioch

Murfey Construction is ready to break ground in September 2014 for a five-story apartment building that will house 36 luxury apartments on the corner of Washington Street and Eighth Avenue in Hillcrest. They are our main focus now, said sales manager Jesse Lyons.

The one- and two-bedroom units will range in size from 760- to 1200-square-feet.

Amenities will be similar to other Murfey Construction projects, including solar panels on the roof top deck complete with a BBQ, that serves as a common area for residents to entertain and socialize, Lyons said.

Energy-efficient stainless steel appliances and energy-efficient green heating and air conditioning are also a given with Murfey Construction. The company thinks green for the environment and builds green to continue protecting it while serving its tenants with cutting edge, state-of-art technology, Lyons said.

Other amenities will include European-style wooden cabinets, hard surface quartz counters in two color schemes, a washer and dryer in each unit, and refrigerator, range, dishwasher, microwave and tankless water heaters.

Everything will be pre-wired for cable and Internet and there will be wall-mounted connections for flat panel TVs and LED lighting, Lyons said. There will be some nice panoramic views toward the ocean a fitness center may be included.

Russ Murfey added With our projects, we install highly efficient, cost-effective products whenever possible, including gas appliances, which are less expensive to operate than electric appliances. We build with Quartz countertops and recycled wood flooring, including bamboo, and try to keep products out of the landfill by recycling more than 50 percent of the materials we use.

Units in Murfeys Famosa project at Voltaire Street and Catalina Boulevard in Point Loma (nine contemporary, 3-bedroom, 3.5-bath townhomes with 2-car garages) are now for sale. A few of the 1,400-1,500 square foot townhomes include a rooftop deck. The multi-use project will have street-level retail spaces.

The rest is here:
Murfey Construction to build apartments in Hillcrest and Famosa Townhomes in Point Loma areas of San Diego