• About
  • Adam Hengels
  • Emily Hamilton
  • Michael Lewyn
  • Salim Furth
  • What Should I Read to Understand Zoning?
  • Contact

Market Urbanism

Liberalizing cities | From the bottom up

“Market Urbanism” refers to the synthesis of classical liberal economics and ethics (market), with an appreciation of the urban way of life and its benefits to society (urbanism). We advocate for the emergence of bottom up solutions to urban issues, as opposed to ones imposed from the top down.

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Linkedin
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Economics
  • housing
  • planning
  • Zoning
  • Urban[ism] Legends
  • Book Reviews

Is there really a building boom? Not as much as you might think

September 12, 2023 By Michael Lewyn

I’ve noticed numerous stories and tweets about a building boom: for example, a recent CNBC story asserts that the number of new apartments is “at a 50-year high.” Various twitterati have used this claim to support their own points of view: some claim that rents are stabilizing because of this new surge in supply, while others argue that the failure of rents to decline shows that new supply doesn’t reduce rents.

But is supply really increasing that rapidly? Federal statistics on housing construction are at a Census housing data webpage. I looked at the “New Housing Units Completed” table and found that about 216,000 housing units in structures with over five units were completed in the first half of 2023.

On the positive side, this is definitely an improvement over the 2010s, when the economy was still recovering from the 2008 recession. For example, in the first half of 2019, just over 169,000 such units were built, and 2018 was pretty similar.

But is construction still up to Reagan-era levels? Not really. In the first half of 1986, almost 258,000 relevant units were completed. And in the first half of 1973, just over 378,000(!) such units were built.

And these levels of construction were in a less populous country. Today the U.S. population is about 335 million, up from about 240 million in 1986 and 212 million in 1973. So if construction had kept up with population, our new unit count would be about 1/3 higher than in 1986, and almost 60 percent higher than in 1973. Instead, construction went down.

To put the facts another way: our half-year multifamily construction rate is about 644 per one million Americans for 2023, down from 1075 per million in 1986 and 1783 per million in 1973. That’s not my idea of a “50-year high.”

Tweet

Filed Under: history, housing

About Michael Lewyn

Michael Lewyn is a Professor at Touro Law Center, where he teaches property, land use, trusts and estates, and environmental law. Originally from Atlanta, he graduated from Wesleyan University and received his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. His books include "Government Intervention and Suburban Sprawl: The Case for Market Urbanism." In addition, he has published dozens of articles, most of which are available at works.bepress.com/lewyn.

Listen in

  • Abundance
  • Conversations with Tyler
  • Densely Speaking
  • Ideas of India
  • Order Without Design
  • UCLA Housing Voice
  • Yeoman

Connect With Us

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Linkedin
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Market Sites Urbanists should check out

  • Arpitrage
  • Cafe Hayek
  • Center for Building in North America blog
  • Construction Physics
  • Conversable Economist
  • Environmental and Urban Economics | Matt Kahn
  • Erdmann Housing Tracker
  • Foundation for Economic Education
  • Marginal Revolution
  • Marginal Revolution University
  • Parafin
  • Propmodo
  • Rent Free
  • Time & Space
  • Urbanomics

Urbanism Sites capitalists should check out

  • Caos Planejado
  • City Density
  • Cornerstone
  • Granola Shotgun
  • Important Readings in Urbanism
  • Kartografia Ekstremalna
  • Metropolitan Abundance Project
  • Pedestrian Observations
  • Planetizen
  • Reinventing Parking
  • Skynomics Blog
  • StreetsBlog USA
  • Strong Towns
  • The Corner Side Yard | Pete Saunders
  • YIMBY Alliance

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries RSS
  • Comments RSS
  • WordPress.org

Copyright © 2025 Market Urbanism