Permits Across Oakland County Show How Much New Housing is Being Built, by City

(Kurt Metzger, May 20, 2024)

Oakland County, MI- The Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) released their annual look at new construction across their seven-county service area, and Oakland County Times has decided to take a look at the data.

The region recorded 9,333 new residential units in 2023. This represents a 9% decrease over the 2022 total of 10,205 units.

Single-family home permits decreased 13%; attached condominium construction fell 20%; and apartment construction fell just 3% from 2022.

Southeast Michigan has averaged just over 10,000 new residential units per year since 2014. Single-family home construction averaged 5,145 permits per year, condominium construction just under 900 units, and apartments almost 4,000 units. The 2023 totals were 9,333; 3,876; 4,787; and, 690, respectively.

Oakland County communities issued the largest number of new residential construction permits in 2023 with 2,589. Single-family home construction comprised nearly 58% of the permits issued.

Macomb County communities issued 1,216 permits, with 60 percent for single-family homes. Wayne County communities issued 1,763 permits, with only 28 percent for single family. This large difference was driven by Detroit and its 1,031 multi-unit permits and only 19 single-family homes. Detroit, for the first time in recent memory, led the region in total permits issued.

Troy led all Oakland communities in total permits issued at 284. They were followed by Birmingham (266), Lyon Township (225), Farmington Hills (189), and Auburn Hills (170).

Figure 1 tracks residential permits issue annually across Oakland County communities from 2010 through 2023. It is readily apparent that 2023’s total was the lowest since 2014, and followed the pandemic years when permits averaged better that 3,300 a year.

Figure 2 documents the trends in single-family and multi-family construction. Single-family construction dominated the permits from 2010 through 2016, while multi-family construction grew in popularity beginning in 2017 (with one year drop in 2018). In fact, multi-family permits outnumbered single-family in both 2019 and 2022. A steep drop in multi-family permits was the major factor in 2023’s overall decrease. First quarter numbers for 2024 show a continued trend toward single-family.