Multi-family housing share declining?

[atlrvr]

I have kept reading that Charlotte is "urbanizing" with with share of multi-family housing share increasing.

I checked permit records today and was shocked to see the opposite to be true, the share of Single-Family housing is increasing, and the multi-family share is decreasing. On top of that, not only is the multi-family share decreasing, but the absolute number of multi-family units are declining as well.

The data only reports for all of Mecklenburg County, so I don't have anything Charlotte specific.

Year - % Multi-family homes of all new construction

2000 - 39.7%

2001 - 34.0%

2002 - 21.2%

2003 - 23.0%

2004 - 28.9%

2005 - 21.7%

Absolute # of multi-family units

2000 - 5,396

2001 - 4,292

2002 - 2,249

2003 - 2,263

2004 - 3,443

2005 - 2,355

All that said, a suburban townhouse community is no different than a suburban single-family community if neither is located in an urban context, except that the townhouse community will generate more traffic per acre.