June 7, 2002

Large Proportion of North Dakota’s New Housing Continues to be Multi-Family Units

North Dakota had 2,130 housing units authorized by building permits for construction in 2000. Of these newly-authorized housing units, 1,259, or nearly 60 percent, were single-family homes or one-unit structures. According to the latest Population Bulletin released from the North Dakota State Data Center at North Dakota State University, this was the second lowest proportion in the nation next to New York.

The bulletin indicates that the number of new housing units is down from 2,577 in 1999. The lowest number of new housing units in the last 20 years was 1,512 in 1990 and the highest was 4,364 in 1983.

Meanwhile, 871 or 41 percent of new residential housing units in North Dakota were in multiple-unit structures. That proportion has been relatively constant over the past two decades.

"The low proportion of single-family units being built in North Dakota is disturbing," said Richard Rathge, director of the State Data Center. "This may reflect the lack of demand for new single-family units because people are opting to leave rather than stay. Alternatively, it may mean that the cost of new homes is out of the reach of young families. It also may reflect the preferences of builders or the desire of retirees to relocate to apartments or condos. Regardless of the reason, the continued emphasis on multiple-unit housing is likely to increase the mobility of residents in the state; a situation we can ill afford," said Rathge.

The data provided in the publication for new privately-owned residential housing units authorized by building permits are obtained by the Census Bureau from permit-issuing jurisdictions including municipalities, counties, townships, unincorporated towns on a monthly basis.

For information on geographic coverage, sources and limitations of the data, visit the following URL: http://tier2.census.gov/bldgprmt/info.html .

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Source: Richard Rathge, (701) 231-8621, richard_rathge@ndsu.nodak.edu
Editor: Tom Jirik, (701) 231-9629, tjirik@ndsuext.nodak.edu

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