National Association of Home Builders Economic Research Blog

Affordability Challenges Push New Home Sales Lower
Affordability Challenges Push New Home Sales Lower
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High mortgage rates and economic uncertainty continued to keep potential home buyers on the sidelines and constrain new home sales in September. New home sales declined from August and remained ...
Which Construction Occupations Will See the Largest Job Gains Over the Next Decade?
Which Construction Occupations Will See the Largest Job Gains Over the Next Decade?
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The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects that the economy will add 5.9 million jobs from 2025 to 2035, with total employment increasing from 170.3 million to 176.2 million, ...
Uptick for Non-Conventional Financing in 2025
Uptick for Non-Conventional Financing in 2025
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Nationwide, the share of non-conventional financing for new home sales accounted for 32.4% of the market, according to NAHB analysis of the 2025 Census Bureau Survey of Construction (SOC) data. ...
A Quarter of Remodelers Started ADUs Over Past Twelve Months
A Quarter of Remodelers Started ADUs Over Past Twelve Months
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When asked if remodelers started a project involving an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) over the past twelve months, 24% indicated that they were building an addition for use as an ...
Slabs Overtake Basements in the East North Central Division
Slabs Overtake Basements in the East North Central Division
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Nearly three-quarters of new single-family homes started in 2025 were built on slab foundations, according to NAHB analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Construction (SOC). The share of ...
Share of New Homes with Decks Inches Upward
Share of New Homes with Decks Inches Upward
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The share of new homes with decks inched upward, from an all-time low of 17.4% in 2024 to 17.8% in 2025, according to NAHB tabulation of data from the HUD/Census ...
State-Level Employment Situation: September 2026
State-Level Employment Situation: September 2026
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State-level employment data for September continued to show a mixed labor market, with job gains and losses split across the county. Although national nonfarm payroll employment increased modestly, year-over-year job ...
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As described in a previous post, NAHB’s recently released its 2022 Priced-Out Estimates, showing that 87.5 million households are not able to afford a median priced new home, and that an additional 117,932 would be priced out if the price goes up by $1,000. A...

The latest results from the Federal Reserve’s Z.1 Financial Accounts of the United States, i.e., the Flow of Funds, show that in 2021, the aggregate market value of all owner-occupied real estate in the United States experienced the largest quarterly increases on record. From $36.8...

Consumer prices continued to break 40-year highs in February due to higher food, gasoline and housing costs. This was the largest year-over-year gain since January 1982. This pace of inflation will likely stay high in the months ahead as Russia-Ukraine crisis continues drive up oil...

In the past month, total mortgage activity, as measured by the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Market Composite Index, underwent a series of weekly declines, but increased in the latest week by 8.5 percent. The latest week’s survey is for the week ending March 4. The...

The construction labor market remains tight, as the industry sees a rising number of job openings year-over-year. The count of open construction jobs increased for the month to 380,000 unfilled positions in January. The highest measure in the history of the data series (going back...

Per the latest results of NAHB’s Home Building Geography Index (HBGI), single-family home building showed higher growth rates across all regional submarkets in the fourth quarter of 2021, relative to the fourth quarter of 2020. Quarterly growth, however, trended downwards for all regions in the...

New NAHB 2022 Priced-Out Estimates showed that 87.5 million households are not able to afford a median priced new home, and that additional 117,932 households would be priced out of the new home market if the price goes up by $1,000. This post presents how...

Job growth accelerated in February with widespread gains across industries. Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 678,000 in February, and the unemployment rate edged down to 3.8%. Construction industry employment (both residential and non-residential) totaled 7.6 million. Residential construction gained 31,000 jobs, while non-residential construction...

NAHB analysis of Census Construction Spending data shows that total private residential construction spending rose 1.3% in January after an increase of 2.2% in December 2021. Spending stood at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $829.4 billion. Total private residential construction spending was 13.4% higher...

Residential construction loan volume reached a post-Great Recession high during the fourth quarter of 2021, as home building activity posted gains for the year. The volume of 1-4 unit residential construction loans made by FDIC-insured institutions increased 1% during the fourth quarter. The volume of...

Per NAHB’s latest Home Building Geography Index (HBGI), through the second half of 2021, multifamily home building rebounded from quarterly declines that began at the outset of the pandemic. In the wake of the public health crisis, there was a pronounced return to higher density...

Data from the Survey of Market Absorption of Apartments (SOMA), produced by the Census Bureau, suggest continued improvement for the multifamily sector in the third quarter of 2021 due to strong demand and low vacancy rates. The absorption rate of unfurnished, unsubsidized apartments (the share...

The missing middle construction sector includes development of medium-density housing, including townhouses, duplexes and other small multifamily properties. While townhouse construction has trended higher in recent quarters, the multifamily segment of the missing middle (apartments in 2 to 4 unit properties) has disappointed. For 2021,...

Confidence in the market for new multifamily housing improved in the fourth quarter of 2021, according to the latest results from NAHB’s Multifamily Market Survey (MMS). The MMS produces two main indices. In the fourth quarter, the Multifamily Production Index (MPI) increased one point to...

New single-family home sales posted a small decline in January as housing demand was affected by a jump in mortgage rates. The January pace of sales was nonetheless solid due to a lack of resale inventory and ongoing need for new construction. The U.S. Department...

According to NAHB analysis of quarterly Census data, the market share of rental units of multifamily construction starts increased to 94.2% during the fourth quarter of 2021. In contrast, the historical low share of 47% was set during the third quarter of 2005, during the...

National home prices grew at an unsustainable pace in December, supported by strong demand and record-low inventory. Home price appreciation is expected to slow in the coming quarters as rising mortgage rates price some homebuyers out of the market. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National...

An expected impact of the virus crisis is a need for more residential space, as people use homes for more purposes including work. Recent data confirms this impact on the market continues to occur. According to fourth quarter 2021 data from the Census Quarterly Starts...

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