Construction of all sorts in the Twin Cities metro area slowed considerably in recent weeks, according to a pair of reports that track residential and commercial building permits.

During February, housing construction fell to a 12-month low, with 286 permits issued to build 371 units, according to data compiled by the Keystone Report for the Builders Association of the Twin Cities (BATC). That was an 18 percent decrease in the number of permits pulled compared with 2015. The overall number of planned units rose because of the influence of large-scale apartment complexes, but permits to build single-family houses were down 18 percent.

Multifamily permits — most of them to build rental apartments — represented just 24 percent of total activity after accounting for nearly half of all new units built in the metro last year. A single permit can be issued to build more than one unit.

By another measure, commercial construction suffered more. On Monday, Dodge Data & Analytics said that in the 13-county metro, nonresidential construction fell 64 percent from $110.7 million in 2015 to $39.9 million during January. Those figures include offices, retail, hotels, warehouses and a variety of other buildings.

The total value of all residential construction, including single-family houses and apartments, in the metro was $173.9 million, down 16 percent compared with last year. Combined, total construction in the Twin Cities was down 33 percent during the month.

The declines occurred despite ideal borrowing conditions and mortgage rates that continue to fall.

After several years of record apartment construction in Minneapolis, there's growing concern that some parts of the city could have too many units in the short term, so developers are shifting their focus to new projects in the suburbs. And developers are also coming off a surge in commercial projects, especially hotels and office buildings, in and around the U.S. Bank Stadium in downtown Minneapolis.

"Despite a weak February, builders still have a positive outlook for 2016," said Meg Jaeger, president of the Builders Association of the Twin Cities 2016, in a statement.

Her assessment is based on a new quarterly sentiment survey of 35 industry leaders launched last month as part of a partnership between BATC and the University of St. Thomas Shenehon Center for Real Estate.

They asked builders to assign a number from zero to 100 for each of six questions related to current market conditions, with a midpoint score of 50 being neutral. Scores higher than 50 indicate a more favorable outlook while scores lower than 50 indicate a more pessimistic outlook. That first survey, taken in December 2015, produced a composite index of 53.

Jim Buchta • 612-673-7376