Fresno is one of the leading cities in California when it comes to real estate construction activity over the past five decades.

Fresno has consistently ranked within the top 10 in California for the construction of single family, multifamily, offices, retail, industrial and self storage facilities, according to a report of real estate development over the last 50 years by StorageCafe, a self-storage search website.

Construction of single family homes has been Fresno’s main priority in the last half century. Fresno ranked second in California in the 1990s with an average 1,731 building permits issued per year. The city also ranks second in the 2020s with 1,577 permits issued yearly.

While Fresno was near the top in single housing, multi-family construction hasn’t received as much of a focus. 

Fresno’s most productive decade of multi-family construction was in the 1980s when it ranked fourth with 1,755 permits issued per year. In the four decades since, Fresno’s combined total is 1,681 and has declined in rank every year. After being ranked fourth in the 1980s Fresno has dropped to sixth in the 1990s, ninth in the 2000s, 12th in the 2010s and 15th so far in the 2020s.

While it didn’t crack the top five in square footage for office construction, Fresno still ranked near the top of the state, sitting between seventh and 11th in all five decades.

The 2000s saw the most success with a yearly average of 410,284 square feet of office space.

Outside of single family units, the construction of retail was Fresno’s most fruitful area. Despite never ranking higher than third, Fresno ranked between third and fifth in every decade. 

With 516,600 yearly square feet of retail, the 1990s was Fresno’s most prosperous decade. 

After four strong decades of industrial construction, all of which ranked in the top seven in California, Fresno currently sits 13th in the 2020s. 

Fresno has seen the largest decrease in the state from the 2010s to the 2020s, with an average decrease of 261,448 square feet. During this time, Fresno went from fourth to 13th, its largest drop in rankings across any decade and type of construction.

Similarly to industrial construction, the construction of self storage has seen a drop off in recent decades. 

Self storage construction in Fresno peaked in the 2000s with an annual average of 158,219 square feet.

After being among the top cities in the state, Fresno went from third in the 1990s to ninth in the 2010s. 

Several other cities across California saw numbers drop in the 2010s before rising again in the 2020s. All of the top nine cities in the 2020s saw an increase across the decade.