Volatile Spring Selling Season Continues
The Census estimate of new home sales posted an unexpected gain in April even as…
Volatile Spring Selling Season Continues
The Census estimate of new home sales posted an unexpected gain in April even as builders and consumers continue to deal with economic uncertainty, elevated interest rates and rising building material costs. Sales of newly built, single-family homes in April increased 10.9% to a 743,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate from a downwardly revised March number,…
94% Multifamily Built-for-Rent Share
According to NAHB analysis of quarterly Census data, the count of multifamily, for-rent housing starts increased during the first quarter of 2025. For the quarter, 88,000 multifamily residences started construction. Of this total, 83,000 were built-for-rent. This was almost 11% higher than the first quarter of 2024. The market share of rental units of multifamily…
Existing Home Sales Fall in April
Despite the brief retreat in mortgage rates and increased supply, existing home sales dropped to 7-month low in April, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). This unexpected decline suggests buyers’ activity continues to be constrained by economic uncertainty and ongoing affordability challenges even with improved market conditions. While existing home inventory improved, the…
Income Growth Helps Mute Existing Affordability Constraints
Despite solid income gains and lower home prices, Americans still continue to face major housing affordability challenges, according to the latest data from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Cost of Housing Index (CHI). The CHI results from the first quarter of 2025 show that a family earning the nation’s median income of…
Gains for Multifamily Missing Middle over Last Year
The missing middle construction sector includes development of medium-density housing, such as townhouses, duplexes and other small multifamily properties. The multifamily segment of the missing middle (apartments in 2- to 4-unit properties) has generally disappointed since the Great Recession. However, there has been a noticeable uptick for this type of housing construction in recent data. For the…
Single-Family Home Size Trending Higher
An expected impact of the virus crisis was a need for more residential space, as people used homes for more purposes including work. Home size correspondingly increased in 2021 as interest rates reached historic lows. However, as interest rates increased in 2022 and 2023, and housing affordability worsened, the demand for home size has trended…
Slight Gains for Townhouse Construction
Townhouse construction expanded more than 2 percent on a year-over-year basis per data from the first quarter of 2025. According to NAHB analysis of the most recent Census data of Starts and Completions by Purpose and Design, during the first quarter of 2025, single-family attached starts totaled 43,000. Over the last four quarters, townhouse construction starts totaled…