ORLANDO—Multifamily construction is at a high in most marketsand, despite tepid economic growth and questions about the pace ofcontinued wage expansion, investors and developers are bullishabout apartments in most markets. At least, that's what theparticipants in the development panel "Are We Overbuilding, orBuilding the Right Stuff?" had to say during the 2016 NMHCApartment Strategies Outlook Conference, held hereTuesday.

Session moderator Jay Denton, SVP of analyticsfor Axiometrics, opened up the discussion with anexamination of the development that's under way—and who's behindit. Denton counted 537,904 units currently under constructionacross the US as of mid-January. Top 50 developers, meanwhile,account for just a fraction of that, 160,804 units.

He also noted that whereas two to three times as many propertiesare being built in the nation's suburbs than the 36 urban coremarkets he tracks, the latter markets are seeing more housing unitsdelivered. Most of the units that have been recently built arestudios or one bedroom residences, more than what's in the existingstock proportionally. This has thus far made sense, said Denton,but "we'll have to rethink that as the demographics of the renterpool change"—e.g., echo boomers form families and need largerunits, and baby boomers who downgrade from single-family homes intoapartments will want more room in their rental units.