Multifamily Report: Apartment construction keeps the multifamily market steady

Jim Haughey, Director, Research and Analytics, Reed Construction Data -- Building Design & Construction, 7/1/2007 12:00:00 AM

Despite the collapse of the condo market, multifamily construction is down only about 5% in the last six months, thanks to a burst of apartment construction.

Condos, like single-family homes, suffered a sales decline caused by tighter mortgage underwriting standards at the bottom of the market and a withdrawal of speculative buyers at the top of the market. As a result, some projects designed as condos will be opened as apartments, and some buildings previously converted to condos will be converted back to apartments. Trends vary widely by region.

There is a huge surplus of entry-level condos in the hot growth metro areas of 2004-06, and a surplus of high-end condos in resort metro areas, especially in Florida.

Multifamily construction spending growth will be about 4-5% after inflation through 2007, and then steady at the 2007 level through next year.

Top 20 multifamily design firms
(2006 billings in $ millions)

Firm	Billings
Source: 2007 Giants 300 survey Note: This ranking is based on firms that made the Giants 300 list.
1. Parsons Brinckerhoff	62.65
2. Vanderweil Engineers	46.79
3. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill	23.10
4. RTKL Associates	20.89
5. Arquitectonica	17.64
6. STV Group	17.60
7. Mithun	17.20
8. Niles Bolton Associates	14.82
9. Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart	14.62
10. Elkus Manfredi Architects	12.76
11. Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates	12.00
12. Simpson Gumpertz & Heger	11.59
13. Martin Associates Group	11.20
14. Solomon Cordwell Buenz	11.14
15. HKS	10.78
16. Perkins Eastman	10.50
17. Morris Architects	9.65
18. Magnusson Klemencic Associates	9.29
19. Ingenium Group	9.22
20. MulvannyG2 Architecture	8.84

Top 20 multifamily contractors
(2006 revenue in $ millions)

Firm	Revenue
Source: 2007 Giants 300 survey Note: This ranking is based on firms that made the Giants 300 list.
1. Bovis Lend Lease	2,597.86
2. Webcor Builders	1,019.15
3. The Turner Corp.	992.88
4. The Yates Cos.	759.90
5. Balfour Beatty Construction	738.08
6. Clark Group	649.80
7. JE Dunn Construction Group	614.88
8. The Opus Group	600.24
9. Suffolk Construction	575.47
10. PCL Construction Enterprises	490.39
11. Structure Tone	429.30
12. The Walsh Group	427.50
13. James McHugh Construction	416.90
14. Swinerton Inc.	393.53
15. JPI	392.25
16. Hunt Building Co.	378.62
17. Hoffman Construction	329.40
18. Moss & Associates	281.33
19. Brasfield & Gorrie	243.68
20. Weis Builders	228.17