By NAHB
Confidence in the market for new multifamily housing declined year-over-year in the second quarter, according to results from the Multifamily Market Survey (MMS) released today by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). The MMS produces two separate indices. The Multifamily Production Index (MPI) had a reading of 44, down 12 points year-over-year, while the Multifamily Occupancy Index (MOI) had a reading of 81, down eight points year-over-year.
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 its components are scaled so that a number below 50 indicates that more respondents report conditions are poor than report conditions are good.
The MPI is a weighted average of four key market segments: three in the built-for-rent market (garden/low-rise, mid/high-rise and subsidized) and one in the built-for-sale (or condominium) market. Even though all four of the components posted year-over-year declines in the second quarter, sentiment about production of garden/low-rise apartments and subsidized apartments remained in positive territory above 50. The component measuring garden/low-rise fell 11 points to 53, the component measuring mid/high-rise units dropped 18 points to 29, the component measuring subsidized units decreased four points to 51 and the component measuring built-for-sale units posted a seven-point decline to 38.
