A report by the Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Denver shows there have been only 681 permits pulled for multifamily units in the metro area in January, 41% fewer than the 1,155 in January 2000. However, January 2000 had been the best year's start in more than a decade for apartment permit activity from Boulder to Elbert counties. In fact, permit activity had been more than double the 497 permits the previous January.
Apartment experts say they had expected permits drop. Because of the huge volume of activity in 2000, lenders want to make sure the market doesn't become overbuilt in 2001. Also, a few big projects last year had skewed the January figures. For example, 441 permits had been pulled in fast-growing Douglas County in January 2000, while in January 2001 no permits had been recorded.
"I really hesitate to make any analysis of the apartment market with only one month's worth of data," Mike Rinner of the Denver-based Genesis Group, which tracks the local housing market, tells GlobeSt.com. "But I do expect the market to slow this year, because it was so robust last year."
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