North Texas apartment builders are tapping the brakes on construction. Permits for new multifamily residential construction are down more than 40% in Dallas-Fort Worth. And the number of D-FW apartments under construction fell below 40,000 units at the end of 2020 for the first time in five years. But North Texas still leads the country in apartment construction. And it’s unclear whether the slowdown in new rental community development is a temporary pause or will last longer due to the pandemic. Most builders are still planning to start local projects in 2021. Some of them were delayed from last year. “A lot of projects that might have been teed up for third-quarter and fourth-quarter starts got pushed ahead,” said Michael Blackwell, senior managing director with Dallas-based Mill Creek Residential. ”Through the summer and fall, a lot of people put the brakes on a number of projects.”