Coming off one of the housing market's best years in history in 2003, the nation's home builders expect to stay nearly as busy next year as rock-solid market fundamentals continue to bolster demand for new homes and apartments nationwide, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).
Sales of new single-family homes should once again eclipse one million units next year, NAHB predicts. On the production side, starts of single- family units should recede by only about 3.5 percent to 1.45 million units. In the multifamily sector, a strong condo component and solid production of federally subsidized low-income rental housing will continue to provide essential support to the market while better job growth will help combat high vacancies in market-rate rental housing. As a result, NAHB projects a mere 1.5 percent decline in multifamily production to 342,000 units this year, followed by some further softening in 2004 to 327,000 units.