Rental properties spark leap in N.J. housing activitiy
Monday August 26, 2013, 10:13 PM
BY KATHLEEN LYNN
STAFF WRITER
The Record
Home-building activity in New Jersey has risen 32 percent so far this year, propelled by construction of rental apartments — another sign that the housing market is healing.
Through July, the state had issued building permits for 13,234 housing units in New Jersey, compared with just over 10,000 for the same period last year, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Monday.
“There’s an acceleration in activity,” said Patrick O’Keefe, an economist with CohnReznick, an accounting firm with an office in Roseland. “While we’re not back to the go-go days of 2005, we have gotten back to a more sustainable pace.”
The state is on track to start more than 22,000 housing units this year — above the nearly 18,000 begun last year, but below the housing-boom peak of 38,588 in 2005, and under the historical average above 30,000.
Multifamily construction accounts for more than 57 percent of the state’s permits so far this year. That has been the trend in recent years, as demand has climbed for rentals in the face of foreclosures and tighter mortgage lending standards.
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