The prospects for continued high levels of multifamily development declined significantly in the third quarter, as did the prospects for continued high occupancy rates, according to results from the Multifamily Market Survey (MMS) released by NAHB. The MMS produces two separate indices. The Multifamily Production Index (MPI) decreased 10 points to 32 compared to the previous quarter while the Multifamily Occupancy Index (MOI) fell 15 points to 45.
The MPI measures builder and developer sentiment about current production conditions in the apartment and condo market on a scale of 0 to 100. The index and all of its components are scaled so that a number below 50 indicates that more respondents report conditions are getting worse than report conditions are improving. Even though both indices are now below the break-even point of 50, both multifamily construction levels and occupancy rates remain quite high compared to historic norms.