Top 10 Metro Areas for Real Estate Development in Last 10 Years

Throughout the past decade, Texas metros acted as powerhouses of real estate development and construction, with Dallas and Houston taking the first two spots in the top 10 most active metros for new construction, according to a new report from Storage Cafe.

Researchers at StorageCafe analyzed multiple data sources on new construction in the single family, multifamily, self-storage, office, retail and industrial sectors in the 50 largest metropolitan areas.

Here are other major findings from the report:

• Residential construction, arguably the hottest real estate sector, picked up great speed in the second half of the decade with single family additions at the forefront. In the past decade, across the 50 metros, more than four million building permits have been issued for single family construction. The leading metro area was Greater Houston with 392,000 permits.
• For multifamily units, a total of 3.3 million building permits were issued. The New York metro area easily took the crown with more than 410,000 permits issued in the past 10 years, almost double the number of permits issued in Dallas-Fort Worth, which ranked second.
• The self-storage sector, which generally mimics residential construction patterns, has also seen considerable growth over the past decade. It totaled more than 299 million square feet of new construction at the end of the decade. Among the 50 metro areas analyzed, the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area ranks first for self-storage construction with around 22.9 million square feet added to its inventory in the past 10 years.
• The office sector also experienced inventory increases, with 740 million square feet of new office space added in the country’s 50 biggest metros over the past decade. The New York metro area was at the forefront once again, with more than 78 million square feet of office space built.
• Overall, the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area ranks as the most active real estate market among the country’s 50 biggest metros. It ticked all the boxes when it came to real estate development, from residential to industrial to self-storage.

Read the full report here.

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