The top ten builders captured a record 44.7% of all new U.S. single-family home closings in 2024, up 2.4 percentage points from 2023 (42.3%). This is the highest share ever captured by the top ten builders since NAHB began tracking BUILDER magazine data on new single-family home closings in 1989. The 2024 share constitutes 306,932 closings…
Multifamily units completed in 2024 recorded their highest level since 1986 at 608,000 units, according to NAHB analysis of the Census Bureau’s Survey of Construction. For the eighth consecutive year, most multifamily units were in buildings with 50 or more units (these will be labeled as high-density buildings). As shown below, this trend is relatively…
The U.S. labor market continued to show resilience in June, with steady job gains led by state/local government and health care sectors. The unemployment rate edged down to 4.1%, signaling ongoing strength in hiring despite persistent economic uncertainty. However, there were some indications that the headline number overstated the health of the labor market, including…
Over half of new single-family homes built in 2024 were two or more stories, according the recent release of the Census Bureau’s Survey of Construction (SOC). After declining in 2023, the share of homes started with two or more stories increased again in 2024, continuing the upward trend in place since 2020. Nationwide, the share…
Private residential construction spending fell by 0.5% in May, marking the fifth straight month of decreases. This drop was primarily driven by reduced spending on single-family construction. Compared to a year ago, total spending was down 6.7%, as the housing sector continues to navigate the economic uncertainty stemming from ongoing tariff concerns and elevated mortgage…
The count of open, unfilled positions in the construction industry held steady amid a slowdown for housing, per the May Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS). The number of open jobs for the overall economy increased slightly from 7.40 million in April to 7.77 million in May. This is smaller than…
Despite persistently high mortgage rates, elevated financing costs for builders, and a shortage of buildable lots, single-family starts rebounded in 2024, following two straight years of declines. According to the National Association of Home Builders’ analysis of the 2024 Survey of Construction (SOC), a total of 1,009,315 new single-family units started construction nationwide. This is…
