Good Catch!

I see what happened, when you first click 'annual' and it says '2020' below, you get the lower number I quoted.

But you can see, if you look, that its actually for 2021 (presumably YTD).

When I found that I was able to shift to 2020, and I got your numbers!

The building permit data per the links is for "New Private Housing Structures Authorized by Building Permits for New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA (MSA)"

So it appears to exclude renovations, additions, and non-residential construction.

I can see how multi-unit buildings might just need 1 permit, but doesn't that mean NYC's count is understated, not overstated?

---

Here's more detailed breakout of New Privately Owned Housing Units Authorized: https://www.census.gov/construction/bps/msaannual.html.

For New York City, this report shows permits issued; and completions, but not Starts.

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories...42ff156345a719

According to the report there were 20,000 units completed in 2020

The same is true for Toronto tons of midrises under construction all over the city
Check out it's construction page: https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/sho...80485&page=178

The us competed 375,000 multifamily units in 2020, the most in thirty years ; 55% of the units were buildings with more than 50 units . Assuming these averaged 100 units/building , that’s 2000 buildings . Are there comparable numbers for Canada ?

It’s harder to prove , but looking at for example Dallas , I believe that most of the build is concentrated in urban or new urbanism locations .

Completions by metro area :

https://reintelligent.com/apartment-...f-completions/

Interesting dc was #1 in terms of completions by submarket with 4000 units completed in navy yard / southwest in one year !. Astounding, that’s a game changer for the area. Downtown Chicago , Kansas City , and Houston — River oaks also did well

Canada-Wide Housing Starts, by quarter, by type:

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1...101%2C20211001

Looking at the 4 quarters of 2020:

Number of apartment units started: 122,951

Row Houses and Semis are separate classifications.

New York -- of course!

Not sure if this has been touched on yet in this thread, but these numbers are total buildings under construction. Emporis isn't just skyscrapers. The database also includes pretty much any type of human built structure, so these numbers could be anything from skyscrapers to antennas to sculptures to amphitheaters and you can't see what types the u/c structures are without an Emporis account.

Austin has 27 buildings 12 floors and taller under construction at the moment, and there are another 7 doing site prep right now that will start construction soon. 16 of those are residential or have a residential component. We're going to eclipse 250 high rises under construction and completed by early next year. This data does not come from Emporis. It's from building elevations from the site plans that we've gathered here on the forum through the city, and these are only projects under construction.

https://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?cityID=93&statusID=2

I'm pretty sure there are more than 12 buildings in the Seaport / Southie alone over 12 stories currently u/c in Boston.

There's definitely more than 12 buildings at 12+ floors u/c in Cambridge. There might be in Somerville already too, but once all the Davis Square stuff starts, add it to the list.

That Boston number is way off. I'll see if I can find the real number at ArchBoston.

I count Seattle at 30 underway. Bellevue another 13.

Site prep is hard to gauge. Seattle allows earlier demo than it used to...made easier to avoid homeless fires etc. And a lot of projects are clearing sites and waiting for Covid or whatever. A few projects started then stopped and exist as holes in the ground. Several have been active in permitting like they might start soon.

I'm seeing 32 u/c in Boston, 10 u/c in Cambridge, and 3 in Somerville.

This is from our own Diagrams plus some ArchBoston input.

So Waterloo has 10, Kitchener 13 U/C. Kitchener also has 31 highrises proposed. Cambridge should have a few more. Not bad for a metro area of 600,000. Dozens of midrises in addition to those too.

Yeah the Detroit number is likely with renovations included I'm guessing (Park Avenue Building, Michigan Central, Albert Kahn building, etc.).

Still impressive though.

83 for Houston seems like a lot. Educated guess to me would be like 15-20 buildings over 12 stories or more going up. 12 stories is taller than what our infill apartments tend to be here. Downtown has like 3 towers going up, there's 2-3 more in Midtown and Museum district, then 2 talls in the Medical Center + 5 or 6 in TMC3, then 2 or 3 towers in Uptown and 2 in Memorial City. Maybe there's some lesser known projects that are over 12 stories I'm forgotting, like mid-priced chain hotels or suburban hospital bed towers, but probably no more than 5-10.

Is there a way to see a list of what these buildings are? Also where they are? Wild guess: maybe industrial or maritime structures of some kind that somebody took the time to record in their database. Refinery towers, offshore equipment in drydock, shipyard cranes, or something weird like that. Maybe when this report was compiled a telecom company was deploying 5G with dozens of not really noticeable pole towers over 120' and for some reason those counted as U/C? Basically anything that's not a normal building, because if we had 83 high rise office or condo towers going up it would be obvious enough on this forum.

On Emporis buildings under renovation are considered completed. They’re shown as “existing [under renovation]”. Those numbers are buildings under construction, but they’re not all skyscrapers/highrises.

The Detroit total under construction is currently 24. That includes 17 low rises between 4-10 floors, 4 highrises, 1 skyscraper, 1 bridge and 1 parking garage. The buildings shown under construction for every other city has a similar composition. As I stated up thread, Emporis includes pretty much every kind of manmade structure, not just skyscrapers.

Communist Party of China is probably building the most in North America.

62 currently listed in the SSP database as completed in 2020 in Toronto with 18 having 35 floors or more. A whooooole lot of ugly mullion caps and back painted spandrel glass.

The change in Toronto skyline over the last decade has been phenomenal and the pace is not slowly down anytime soon either.

here is the Yonge axis from the lake to Yorkville

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...ea70842c_k.jpg

Plenty of more under construction projects in the rest of the city as well
https://skyscraperpage.com/forum/sho...80485&page=178

wow.

For the U.S., why aren't people just using the Census data? Seems pretty straightforward.

Pretty much every year, at least in recent history, Dallas-Forth Worth or Houston are building the most SFH, and NYC is building the most multifamily.

The Census has monthly MSA data, through August 2021, and going back many years.

https://www.census.gov/construction/bps/msamonthly.html

I don't love looking at snapshot Census housing data bc construction can be highly variable over the years. That said, Austin has absolutely insane housing construction right now, and all the major TX cities are building like crazy. Nashville and smaller Florida metros are also going crazy.

Chicago is a definite laggard, at least relative to size. And it's amazing how little is u/c in Silicon Valley, ensuring a continuation of extreme housing pricing. The Rust Belt metros tend to have the least construction, which isn't surprising.

Its always amazing how few single family homes get built in the Miami area. South Florida is building fewer than Jacksonville and half as much as New York, which isn't exactly known for churning out single family subdivisions either. Part of the reason the single family home I bought 2 years ago has already increased in price by 70%.
Then again there isn't much of anything getting built in South Florida these days. Fewer single family homes AND fewer multi-family then Provo, Utah for example.

Damn, thats impressive. Make me so jealous that we cant get projects going here short of 4 years from the time of proposal to ground breaking.

Toronto is insane. Every time I visit it looks different.

As a kid, I spent a ton of family time between Detroit and Toronto in the late 80's/early 90's, as we have relatives in the GTA. The skyline has absolutely exploded since then, while the Detroit skyline has barely changed.

The RenCen is so dominant in Detroit, and while the CN Tower and Bay Street office towers still loom large, basically everything else has changed.

skyline-wise, toronto has certainly made the leap to "next level".

it's not so much that it's building so many highrise buildings (it's been doing that for a long time), it's more about the fact that it's now finally building so many truly tall buildings (700+ feet) that has it "rising" to a definitive 2nd/3rd place in north america (spilt the hairs with chicago as you will). NYC is obviously still out in front at #1, especially with the recent-ish super-tall frenzy that has taken hold of the city.


just to attach some numbers to that observation, over the past 3 decades, here are the number of 100M+ towers built in each city (+ U/C) according to the CTBUH database :

toronto: 234 + 38
detroit: 1 + 1

I should have included this one as well, but here is all of Central Toronto

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...0dc3022f_k.jpg
https://urbantoronto.ca/forum/thread....27943/page-15

Even during Covid, I was living at my parents place outside of the city for pretty much all of 2020/2021 until June of this year. Went back to my condo sporadically, but when I started walking around downtown again it was like jumping forward in a time machine where a building that was basically a stump when I left the city was now a 40-storey tower.

Four major office towers are nearing completion with The Well, Bay Adelaide North, CIBC Square Phase 1, and 160 Front continuing ahead during the lockdowns. Doubt we will see another major office development commence over the next few years as the long-term implications of Covid on office space requirements are sorted out. Condo market has rebounded quickly so no doubt we will continue to get our fill of tall, spandrel-filled crap.

Toronto's growth is just wild. Nothing in North America comes close. It's exciting to have a city like that in the great lakes region. Give me that cyberpunk aesthetic!

Detroit's tower construction was in hibernation for awhile lol. But that's okay, the pre-war skyscraper collection is one of the best on earth so it certainly wasn't lacking anything. Luckily though things have changed recently with several high-rises planned or under construction.

in terms of skyline growth, NYC supersedes toronto, particularly at the upper end, but toronto ain't all that far behind.

in the US/canada, since the start of the new millennium, there are 4 cities that have gobbled up the lion's share of new 500 footers (including U/C):

NYC - 130
toronto - 80
miami - 55
chicago - 54

the rest - 199

so those 4 cities alone have combined for 62% of all the new 500 footers in the two nations.

Proportionally it's still not even close though.

yes that's true.

toronto started from an extremely small base of 500 footers (miami would also be in that same category). in 1999, toronto only had 10 such towers. sure, there were a bazillion 20-story commie blocks sprinkled everywhere across the city, but the toronto skyline as a truly sky-piercing affair is mainly a 21st century phenomenon, quite unlike NYC and chicago, the two old school juggernauts (who have still kept pace admirably).

It's sad to think how much more Toronto could have built if not for the NIMBYism that dominates the culture and the policy-making of the city. Looking at those pictures, one can only think of Toronto's unrealized potential due to the anti-high-rise attitudes of its populace. Toronto can be more than a low-rise city if the people and the politicians there were willing to open their minds. They need to allow Toronto to finally become a real city instead of just a glorified suburb.

In it's latest marketing material, the HUB is still planning on Occupancy in 2025 so it would need to start in 2022
https://thehub30bay.com/

https://cdn.skyrisecities.com/sites/...059-126786.jpg
https://www.rsh-p.com/assets/uploads...851_medium.jpg
https://www.rsh-p.com/assets/uploads...061_medium.jpg

They can plan occupancy as much as they want but until they secure an anchor tenant it's smoke and mirrors. Likely they are marketing this as "If you sign a lease before the end of 2021 we can have you in your new landmark tower by 2025".

Its true that 'The Hub' does not yet have a head lessee signed.

However, .......

11 Bay does...........

And there are lots of interested parties buzzing around.

There will likely be several major office towers rising.

Nothing is ever certain, until after it has happened; but I feel confident in that projection.

Wow I didn't even know about this project until you mentioned it.
the renders look tasty

https://cdn.skyrisecities.com/sites/...134-127095.jpg

11 Bay has a tenant? Haven't heard anything out of the Quadreal guys. Depends on if some marquee companies want to spend the money for brand new space. There won't be a shortage of good deals to be had in the traditional financial core as large amounts of space is vacated for the aforementioned projects.

Absolute insanity.

https://urbantoronto.ca/forum/thread...7/post-1719708

Public confirmation should be out by year-end, I think.

There are still some 'i' s to dot and 't' s to cross.

****

They aren't the only big name shopping for space in Toronto either.

Crazily, this render by the redoubtable steveveve doesn't even enclose the Humber Bay or Yonge/Eglinton skylines, which, if what is proposed there is built, could pass for major skylines all by themselves.

Don't worry, Steveve has got your back

Yonge-Eglinton
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...ffc703bd_k.jpg

Yonge-Eglinton, Yonge-Davisville and Yonge-St. Clair
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...8049a823_k.jpg

North York City Centre
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...2ffbd767_k.jpg

Golden Mile
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...fd836a89_k.jpg

Humber Bay
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...fd9b3bc6_k.jpg

Visual history of Toronto high-rise development
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...e8483560_k.jpg

And finally here is his work of Downtown Toronto after all current construction and proposals are done
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...64fe765f_k.jpg

https://urbantoronto.ca/forum/thread....27943/page-15

Any sense of how many units are being built every year in downtown Toronto? I'd guess around 10,000?

I know that Commerce Court South proposal has an observation deck proposed (cool), but it would be really neat to have a public observatory in one of these very tall buildings going up in either College Park or Yorkville. Aside from douchey lounges in Yorkville, you can't really access views of Toronto that show the layers of the skyline as much, because the skyline is oriented along the Yonge corridor most strongly. So views from the lake, the most common angle, miss that. The CN Tower is great but misses the most iconic building in the city because you're inside of it (why Top of the Rock is better than ESB in NYC).

That's so true!

Is it possible to get these numbers for the city proper? My thinking is the MSA calculation is just capturing a lot of sprawl (Dallas, Houston). The same numbers by city population would show which cities are doing the most infill and building up.

It may be in another thread, but I remember NYC was at 30,000 and Toronto was at 22,000. That's probably numbers 1 and 2, respectively. Who would be #3?

Depends, you want the city proper numbers? In that can some cities like Houston, Austin and Calgary will still capture large swaths of the MSA.

If looking at just the urban core, I'd expect Seattle would be up there.

Those Toronto diagrams are as awesome as they are dumbfounding... it is basically set to add the equivalent of Los Angeles skyline and the Philadelphia skyline (and probably more) to it's existing skyline in the coming years. Just astounding numbers.

While it pales in comparison to the Toronto numbers, Nashville has approximately 50 towers of 300 feet or more either U/C, approved, or proposed at the moment... I imagine that has got to be up there a ways, no? And before you ask, no, most of them are not hotels.

Oh absolutely... If we were to make a list of north american metros >1M populaiton ordered by new square footage/population, Nashville would certainly be in the top 5, if not the top.

You can do it on a per capita basis.

City...Housing Starts 2020...Per 100,000 people

Jersey City...4,766...1,814.5
Toronto...22,000...750.9
Nashville...2,431...351.1
New York...30,000...340.9
Dallas...1,050...78.9