During the first five months of the year, builders were issued 1,879 permits to build 3,292 units, the most since 2007, according to the Builders Association of the Twin Cities (BATC).
An apartment boom underway in downtown Minneapolis has been a key driver of the recovery in the construction industry. Nearly half of all planned units during May were for multifamily buildings, including Stonebridge Lofts, a 165-unit condo building downtown.
With buyers and renters favoring urban living over the long commutes that come with living in outer-ring suburbs, Minneapolis continues to be the busiest city in the metro for housing construction. Last month, 183 multifamily units were permitted in the city on top of more than 1,000 already permitted. Thousands more apartments have been proposed, mostly in the North Loop neighborhood, Uptown and near the University of Minnesota campus.
Those are three paragraphs from early in the item. Strib reporting is more extensive and detailed, again, this link.