Once-Hot Apartment Construction Cooling as U.S. Housing Engine

The 416 Kent Avenue apartment development stands under construction in the Williamsburg neighborhood of the Brooklyn borough of New York, U.S., on Friday, July 28, 2017. Former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer now head of his family's real estate company, is building his first apartments at a time when other developers are also filling Brooklyn with rentals. He's delivering 857 units across two towers in New York's hippest and most populous borough, where the apartment supply has been expanding for two years and rents have declined in nine of the past 12 months.Photographer: John Taggart/Bloomberg

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By Shobhana Chandra, Vince Golle and Jordan Yadoo

November 20, 2017 at 5:01 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Faster apartment building was instrumental in pulling the U.S. housing market out of its slump a decade ago. Now, that engine is starting to throttle back.

A softening in the multifamily segment is something to keep an eye on even as overall homebuilding -- which includes single-family dwellings that make up the largest share of the market -- is expected to keep moving forward.