PSRC’s new Regional Housing Strategy: 2023 Monitoring Report shows that the central Puget Sound region has seen strong housing production for the last few years. In particular, multifamily housing production has been consistently climbing in the past decade, with over 23,000 multifamily housing units completed this year. Single family home building has remained steady at between 6,000-8,000 completions a year for the past several years.
However, the permitting pipeline indicates that housing production may start trending down. In the past few years, residential permitting peaked at almost 3,300 in December 2021 and began declining, dropping almost by half to 1,740 in June 2023. Isolating for multifamily housing, permitting has dropped by more than half, from over 2,500 units permitted in December 2021 to under 1,100 units permitted in June 2023. Single family housing permitting is also down, minus seven percent in that same time period, from around 720 units permitted to around 670 units.
A decline in permitting signals slower housing production that could put the region at risk of falling further behind pace for the roughly 2,250 new units per month needed to address the housing backlog and accommodate expected population growth, potentially further exacerbating affordability.
Learn more about the suite of tools PSRC has created to help local jurisdictions address housing in comprehensive planning, including Housing Opportunities by Place, Housing Innovations Program and the Regional Housing Strategy.