Apartment building boom is hitting a ceiling after five years of increases

LAS VEGAS The big run-up in apartment building may run out of steam this year.

Apartment construction across the country has more than tripled since 2009. Last year developers started more than 350,000 multifamily housing units nationwide.

Analysts say that apartment construction increases should dwindle in the next two years.

My forecast is for a leveling not a lot more growth, said Dave Crowe, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders, which recently held its annual meeting in Las Vegas. We are at the level that can be sustained by the demand.

Apartments accounted for about a third of total U.S. home construction in 2014.

Crowe said apartment construction is peaking because of construction constraints and a shift by some renters into home buying.

We are starting to see some of the older millennials moving to homeownership, he said.

During recent years in most major cities, apartments have captured a larger than normal share of new households.

Whatever the job growth has been, all of the newly formed households have become renters, Crowe said.

He said that as renters age, they are more inclined to think about homeownership.

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Apartment building boom is hitting a ceiling after five years of increases