Houses or apartments: how the permit mix shifted
Of the housing units authorized in the United States from 2021 to 2025, 34% were in buildings with five or more units and 63% were single-family houses. In 2004–2006 the five-plus share was 19%. The country now permits apartments at a scale it did not before the housing bust.
The permit survey sorts every authorized unit by the size of its building. A detached or attached house counts as one unit; a twelve-unit apartment building counts twelve units, all in the five-plus class. The shares on this site are shares of units, not of buildings, so one large building weighs as much as dozens of houses.
The national mix, year by year
| Year | Single-family units | Units in 5+ buildings | 5+ share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 911,903 | 463,972 | 32% |
| 2024 | 981,911 | 441,621 | 30% |
| 2023 | 919,973 | 536,413 | 35% |
| 2022 | 973,851 | 651,302 | 39% |
| 2021 | 1,115,360 | 568,769 | 33% |
| 2020 | 979,360 | 444,539 | 30% |
| 2019 | 862,084 | 481,371 | 35% |
| 2018 | 855,332 | 433,799 | 33% |
| 2017 | 819,976 | 424,806 | 33% |
| 2016 | 750,796 | 421,064 | 35% |
| 2015 | 695,998 | 454,507 | 38% |
| 2014 | 634,597 | 381,965 | 37% |
| 2013 | 620,802 | 341,050 | 34% |
| 2012 | 518,695 | 285,062 | 34% |
| 2011 | 418,498 | 184,009 | 29% |
| 2010 | 447,311 | 135,318 | 22% |
| 2009 | 441,148 | 121,125 | 21% |
| 2008 | 575,554 | 295,400 | 33% |
| 2007 | 979,889 | 358,964 | 26% |
| 2006 | 1,378,220 | 384,079 | 21% |
| 2005 | 1,681,986 | 389,334 | 18% |
| 2004 | 1,613,445 | 366,248 | 18% |
The five-plus share was lowest in 2004 (18%) and highest in 2022 (39%). Two forces moved it. During the bust single-family permits collapsed first and furthest, so the apartment share rose even as apartment permits fell. Then apartment building recovered sooner: units in five-plus buildings reached a record for the series in 2022 at 651,302, while single-family permits have stayed below their 2005 level of 1,681,986.
Where apartments dominate
Across the 387 metro areas, 49 put more than half of their 2021–2025 units in five-plus buildings. Among the 56 largest, the apartment-heavy end looks like this:
| Metro area | 5+ share, 2021–2025 | 5+ share, 2004–2006 |
|---|---|---|
| New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | 75% | 47% |
| Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL | 67% | 49% |
| San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA | 63% | 38% |
| San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | 62% | 48% |
| Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH | 62% | 44% |
| Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | 61% | 28% |
| Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT | 58% | 20% |
| San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | 57% | 55% |
| Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | 54% | 48% |
| Salt Lake City-Murray, UT | 54% | 15% |
Several of these were already apartment markets before 2008. Others changed character: Seattle is one of the places where the share more than doubled.
Where houses still dominate
At the other end, Oklahoma City (9.5%), Greenville, SC (11%), Fresno (12%), Birmingham (18%), Memphis (20%) put a small share of their units in five-plus buildings. In these metro areas single-family houses made up most of the new units.
The biggest shifts
Comparing 2004–2006 with 2021–2025 shows which metro areas changed most. Among those averaging at least 1,000 units a year recently:
| Metro area | 5+ share, 2004–2006 | 5+ share, 2021–2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Lafayette-West Lafayette, IN | 8.2% | 73% |
| Bloomington, IN | 14% | 69% |
| Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury, CT | 22% | 68% |
| Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater, WA | 7.7% | 53% |
| Kiryas Joel-Poughkeepsie-Newburgh, NY | 18% | 61% |
| Boulder, CO | 20% | 62% |
| Eau Claire, WI | 10% | 52% |
| Missoula, MT | 18% | 59% |
Several of the largest swings are in college towns and mid-sized metro areas, where a few large buildings can outweigh the house count. Each area page draws its own mix as a bar beside the national one, and the Versus tool can plot the five-plus share for any two areas year by year.
The mix by metro size
Bigger metro areas lean further toward apartments. The table pools all units in each size class for 2021–2025.
| Metro areas of | 5+ share | 2–4 share | Single-family share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 million or more residents | 42% | 2.9% | 56% |
| 500,000 to 999,999 residents | 27% | 4.5% | 68% |
| 250,000 to 499,999 residents | 26% | 3.2% | 71% |
| under 250,000 residents | 24% | 4.9% | 71% |
Among states the five-plus share is highest in District of Columbia (92%), New York (73%), Connecticut (56%) and lowest in Mississippi (6.3%), Delaware (11%), West Virginia (12%). The District of Columbia is a single city, so its figure is closer to a big-city metro area than to a state.
The latest years
Apartment permits swing harder than house permits. Units in five-plus buildings fell from 651,302 in 2022 to 441,621 in 2024, a drop of 32%, then rose to 463,972 in 2025. Single-family permits moved within a narrower band over the same years, between 911,903 and 981,911.
The states most reliant on single-family houses in 2021–2025 were Mississippi (92%), Delaware (86%), South Carolina (86%), West Virginia (86%).
Where the apartment share fell
The shift toward apartments was broad: 290 of the 387 metro areas had a higher five-plus share in 2021–2025 than in 2004–2006. A few moved the other way. Among metro areas averaging at least 1,000 units a year, the largest declines were in Myrtle Beach (40% to 1.3%), Daphne (38% to 12%), Beaumont (25% to 6.4%), Punta Gorda (26% to 12%), Pensacola (16% to 3.3%). The table on each of their pages shows in which boom years the five-plus units were concentrated.
Reading a high five-plus share
A high share can come from a large number of apartments or from a small number of houses. New York and a college town can post similar shares for opposite reasons: the first authorizes tens of thousands of apartment units a year, the second a few big student buildings beside a modest flow of houses. Set the share next to the unit counts before drawing a conclusion, and compare any two areas year by year in Versus.
Reading the mix carefully
A five-plus share says nothing about rent or price, and nothing about whether buildings are owner-occupied or rented: condominiums and rental apartments both fall in the same class. It also hides the middle: buildings of two to four units are a small and separate category, covered in the briefing on duplexes to fourplexes.
Sources
US Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey, annual county and state files 2004–2025; OMB metro area delineation of July 2023; US Census Bureau, Population Estimates, Vintage 2025. All figures computed by this site; see the counting rules.