How Philadelphia ranks on multifamily construction

Consider the Philadelphia real estate landscape since 2000, and you're likely to imagine a new high-rise apartment and condo buildings erupting regularly for nearly 20 years. A new report from Apartment List confirms your recollections: Between 2000 and 2016, the share of new residential construction on multifamily units in the city increased from 8 percent to 23 percent. That's a lot of new apartments and condos.

Nationally, multifamily construction is way up when compared with single-family construction. The report notes that spending in the sector is up nearly four times what it was in 2010 — a strong indicator that it has bounced all the way back since the market collapse. Meanwhile, single-family spending nationwide lags significantly behind its peak in 2006. While New York City has spent the most overall on multifamily construction since 2000 (at $64.9 billion), Seattle has spent the most per capita.

Locally, between 2000 and 2016, developers in Philadelphia spent $8.3 billion on multifamily construction, the report says. That puts the city at 18th in the country in terms of raw spending and 21st in the country for per-capita spending on multifamily construction. Of all new residential construction in the city, multifamily projects now comprise a 16 percent increase in that share.