Nevada has seen significant recovery of building permit activity in the last several years, with the total going from 6,163 units in the lowest year of the recession, 2011, to 19,376 units in 2017 (preliminary). But total units permitted were still 59% lower in 2017 than the peak of 47,728 units permitted in 2005. Using the 2017 preliminary data, total units permitted in 2017 were about 8% higher than in 2016. About a third of the units permitted (6,281) were in buildings with five or more units, that is, multi-family apartments. The proportion of multi-family units was higher than average. Since 2000, the average percentage of total permits that were multi-family was 24%.  

Washoe County 2017 total permits (preliminary) were up 27% over 2016. Also, Washoe County jurisdictions issued permits for 4,554 units, the highest level since the 2005 peak of 6,282 units.  In contrast, Clark County preliminary permits issued were up 2% over 2016. Accounting for most of the difference were Washoe County multi-family permits which were up 50% over 2016 to 2,416 units, a new high for new multi-family units .[i] Clark County 2017 multi-family permits were down 19% from 2016 to 3,841 units. On average, Washoe County multi-family units made up 24% of total units permitted from 2000 to 2017. In 2017, over half of residential units permitted in Washoe County were multi-family units.

For more information see the Nevada Housing Division Low Income Housing Database.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Residential Building Permits Survey. https://www2.census.gov/econ/bps/County/  accessed 4-26-2018. Note that the Census Bureau may sometimes reclassify permits in preliminary data from multi-family to single-family in the final data. 

[i] Washoe County Multi-family units permit data were examined back to 1980. 1980 to 1989 data was from SOCDS Building Permits Databaseon the U.S. Housing And Urban Development website: https://socds.huduser.gov/permits/ accessed 5-1-2018.