New home construction in Houston continues at high levels.

• Low interest rates pushed single-family starts in the Houston CMSA to 34,311 units in ’01, surpassing the previous record of 33,300, set in ’83, and marking the second consecutive year over the 30,000 mark.

• Corporate relocations from areas with much higher housing prices are helping to sustain the upper end of Houston’s new home market. The lower end has been helped by rising apartment rents, reflecting high apartment occupancy levels—above 91 percent for every quarter since the beginning of ’01. Q1/02 occupancy stood at 91.4 percent, with average rent at $.727/sf/mo, according to Apartment Data Services, Inc.

• CDS Market Research puts ’01 multi-family starts at 7,183 units, just a few hundred below the ’00 total. The past two years were down sharply from 18,280 in ’98 and 11,990 in ’99 as the market successfully corrected to avoid overbuilding.

• CDS anticipates that single-family housing starts in ’02 will run in the 27,000-30,000 range, reflecting the lack of job growth early in the year.