Multifamily permits down 23% nationally — but North Port, Cape Coral shine

As it continues to get harder to find housing that’s affordable, news comes that the number of permits to build apartment units has fallen 23% nationwide since the post-pandemic boom.

Redfin, an online real estate brokerage, has a new report out that says that over the past year developers obtained permits to build an average of 12.8 multifamily housing units for every 10,000 people in the U.S.

That, the report’s authors say, is down from an average of 16.7 during the pandemic building boom, and down 1.1% from an average of 13 in the years leading up to the pandemic.

But it’s not all worrisome news in Florida.

The report found that projects in North Port obtained permits to build 65 multifamily units for every 10,000 people over the past year — the highest in the country. North Port, in south Sarasota County, is part of the North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton MSA. 

Cape Coral made the top five as well, with 63.6 permits issued for every 10,000 residents. Cape Coral is part of the Cape Coral-Fort Myers MSA. 

Both localities have seen the number of permits increase in the past year when compared with the pandemic years.

Redfin’s report is based on U.S. Census data covering building permits for buildings with five or more units. The time period covered in the report is July 2024 to June 2025. The pandemic period covers the same months from 2020 to 2023. And the pre-pandemic period covers the same months from 2014 to 2020.

Redfin blames several factors for the drop in permits issued to build for multifamily units. Chief among those is actually a spike in multifamily development, especially in the Sunbelt states, in the aftermath of the pandemic.

Because of that, the report’s authors write, “the number of units being completed hit a 50-year high in 2024, causing rents to fall as landlords struggled to fill vacancies.

“Falling rents and high borrowing costs for builders made building less attractive, which is why we’re now seeing a decline in permits.”