Robert Dietz

Robert D. Dietz, Ph.D., is the chief economist and senior vice president for economics and housing policy for NAHB, where his responsibilities include housing market analysis, economic forecasting and industry surveys, and housing policy research. Dr. Dietz has published academic research on the private and social benefits of homeownership, federal tax expenditure estimation, and other housing and tax issues in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Urban Economics, Journal of Housing Research, the National Tax Journal and the NBER Working Paper series. He has testified before the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee, and the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Economic Policy on housing and economic issues. Prior to joining NAHB in 2005, Dr. Dietz worked as an economist for the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, specializing in revenue estimation of legislative proposals involving housing, urban development, and other business tax issues. He is a native of Dayton, Ohio and holds a doctorate in economics from The Ohio State University.

Year-over-Year Gain for Multifamily Missing Middle

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 was a noticeable uptick for this type of housing construction in recent data. For the fourth…

Read more

Multifamily Unit Size Increases

According to NAHB analysis of quarterly Census data, the count of multifamily, for-rent housing starts declined during the fourth quarter of 2024. For the quarter, 91,000 multifamily residences started construction. Of this total, 86,000 were built-for-rent. This was almost 12% lower than the fourth quarter of 2023. The market share of rental units of multifamily…

Read more

Townhouse Construction Expanded in 2024

Townhouse construction expanded 10% during 2024, outpacing the rest of the single-family home building market. According to NAHB analysis of the most recent Census data of Starts and Completions by Purpose and Design, during the fourth quarter of 2024, single-family attached starts totaled 44,000. Over the last four quarters (2024 as a whole), townhouse construction starts totaled…

Read more