Apartment and Condominium Market Bounces Back in 2Q

The Multifamily Production Index (MPI), released by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), posted a gain of eight points to 56 in the second quarter. The MPI measures builder and developer sentiment about current conditions in the apartment and condominium market on a scale of 0 to 100. The index and all of its components are scaled so that a number above 50 indicates that more respondents report conditions are improving than report conditions are getting worse.

The MPI provides a composite measure of three key elements of the multifamily housing market: construction of low-rent units, market-rate rental units and “for-sale" units or condominiums. All three components increased in the second quarter: low-rent units and market-rate rental units rose five points to 53 and 60, respectively, while for-sale units climbed 14 points to 57. This is the highest the for-sale index has been since 2005.