"We are on the cusp right now of the largest boom market for apartments since the 1980s," Matthew Gardner, a land-use economist and principal of real estate analysis firm Gardner Economics, says in this week's paper.

For example: At Sixth Avenue and Lenora Street, twin 24-story towers that waited in the wings during the bust finally have capital to break ground "in the next 30 days," says Pine Street Group managing partner Matt Griffin. His investment partner, Bentall Kennedy, "agrees it's time to go," Griffin says. That project will contain 652 apartments. To the south, on Second Avenue and Pine Street, sources close to a previously stalled hotel-condo hybrid project foresee action soon—now as a 296-unit, 35-story apartment building. And developer Kevin Daniels said in March that he will break ground this summer in the massive parking lot north of Qwest Field to build two apartment towers, part of a 1.5-million-square-foot development project that's been in the works for years.

Read more about thousands of new apartments HERE.