New CDRPC Report Documents Historic Resurgence in Capital Region Multifamily Housing

More than 11,000 apartments in the development pipeline could represent the region’s largest wave of multifamily construction

Albany, NY — The Capital District Regional Planning Commission (CDRPC) has released On the Rise: Multifamily Housing in the Capital Region 2026, a new report examining more than a century of multifamily housing development across Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga, and Schenectady counties.

The report finds that multifamily housing construction is experiencing a historic resurgence. As of June 2026, approximately 11,280 units in developments containing five or more apartments were proposed, under construction, or in the planning stages for the 2025–2029 period. If completed, these projects would surpass the Capital Region’s previous five-year peak of 9,556 units constructed between 1970 and 1974.

“Multifamily housing is playing an increasingly important role in meeting the Capital Region’s housing needs,” said Mark Castiglione, Executive Director of the Capital District Regional Planning Commission. “This report places today’s development activity within more than a century of regional history. The scale of the current pipeline is significant, but where and how these projects are built will be just as important as the number of units produced.”

The analysis uses CoStar multifamily property records and U.S. Census data to examine long-term housing and development patterns. For purposes of the study, multifamily housing is defined as residential developments containing five or more dwelling units. Because available records are more consistent for larger properties, buildings containing fewer than five units are not included. The report cautions that historical totals may therefore understate earlier multifamily construction and that pipeline projects should not be interpreted as completed units.

Among the report’s principal findings:

• The region constructed 76,322 multifamily units between 1900 and 2024.
• Large apartment complexes account for most recent multifamily production. Developments containing 50 or more units represented approximately 85 percent of multifamily units constructed between 2020 and 2024.
• Projects have grown larger over time. Among developments containing five or more units, average project size increased from approximately 15 units during 1900–1924 to nearly 85 units during 2000–2024.
• Multifamily development has shifted outside the region’s traditional urban centers. Approximately 87 percent of large apartment construction occurred in Albany, Schenectady, Troy, and Saratoga Springs during 1900–1924. During 2000–2024, the core cities’ share was approximately 33 percent.
• Recent suburban development is geographically dispersed. Rather than being concentrated in a few suburban centers, large multifamily development has occurred across numerous municipalities.

“Understanding the location and scale of new housing is essential to planning an effective regional transportation system,” said Sandy Misiewicz, Executive Director of the Capital Region Transportation Council. “When housing growth is distributed across a broad network of communities, coordination between transportation, land-use, and infrastructure planning becomes increasingly important. This report provides valuable context for those regional and local decisions.”

The report traces how federal housing policy, transportation infrastructure, financing conditions, population change, and the movement of employment helped reshape the geography of housing in the Capital Region. In 1920, approximately 61 percent of the region’s population lived in its four core cities. By 2020, that share had declined to 28 percent, even as the region’s total population increased by more than 423,000 people, or 86 percent.

Multifamily housing followed this broader outward shift. The report identifies the period from roughly 1950 to 1975 as the first time large multifamily developments were more likely to be constructed outside the core cities than within them. The pattern accelerated in subsequent decades as population and employment became increasingly dispersed throughout the region.

After reaching a historic peak in the early 1970s, multifamily construction declined substantially. Production fell from 7,107 units during 1975–1979 to 2,264 units during 1990–1994, a decrease of approximately 68 percent. Construction began to recover during the early 2000s and accelerated to 9,174 units during 2015–2019, the highest five-year production level since the early 1970s.

The predominance of larger developments is also changing how housing is delivered. Since the mid-20th century, projects containing 50 or more units have generally accounted for more than two-thirds of multifamily units captured in the report’s dataset. During several periods, their share exceeded 90 percent.

The report concludes that understanding these long-term shifts is important for future housing, transportation, infrastructure, and land-use decisions. Today’s development pipeline has the potential to establish a new regional record, but unlike earlier waves concentrated in a handful of cities, current growth is distributed across a broad network of suburban municipalities.

Financial assistance for preparation of the report was provided through grants from the Federal Highway Administration and Federal Transit Administration of the U.S. Department of Transportation, and through the New York State Department of Transportation at the direction of the Capital Region Transportation Council.

The full report is available through the Capital District Regional Planning Commission.

For additional information, contact the Capital District Regional Planning Commission.

About the Capital District Regional Planning Commission
The Capital District Regional Planning Commission is a regional planning and resource center serving Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga, and Schenectady counties. CDRPC objectively analyzes data, trends, opportunities, and challenges relevant to the region’s economic development and planning communities. CDRPC promotes intergovernmental cooperation, facilitates regional initiatives, shares information, and provides added capacity to municipalities through regional coordination, planning, data analysis, and technical assistance programs.

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Media Assets:
​By the Numbers​
​Multi-Family Construction Over Time​
​Regional Growth and Development Patterns