The housing market generally appears to be recovering, but CNBC said it’s not necessarily happening at the expense of the multi-family sector, which boomed as home sales and home prices plummeted.

The latest data shows home sales are rising yet prices for those homes remain flat. Simultaneously, rents continue to rise and push affordability back in favor of buying, CNBC said. Additionally, with multi-family construction up 30 percent annually in July and permits for such buildings 47 percent greater, an oversupply could be on the horizon.  [more]

Multi-family housing developers have benefitted from the recession and a tight lending climate, but rentals are often being constructed in areas with strong seller’s markets, according to apartment pipeline data from Axiometrics cited by the Wall Street Journal.

Areas with a true sellers’ markets – cities like San Jose, Calif., San Francisco, Austin and Phoenix – are seeing a surge in multi-family development because buyers are willing to rent while they wait for a more advantageous market.  [more]