Eye On Housing
Median square foot prices (excluding record-high improved lot values) for new for-sale single-family detached (SFD) homes started in 2022 increased 18%, according to NAHB’s analysis of the latest Survey of Construction data. Increases for square foot prices in new custom SFD homes were similarly high, averaging 19%, more than double the US inflation of 8% registered by the CPI the… Read More ›
The Census Bureau’s Survey of Construction (SOC) provides valuable information on the characteristics of new homes started construction, such as air conditioning and heating system installations. Air Conditioning In 2020, 95.4 percent of new single-family homes started had a central AC system, slightly higher than 95.0 percent in 2019. The trend, going back to 2000, shows a steady rise in the share… Read More ›
The median lot size of a new single-family detached home sold in 2020 stands at 8,306 square feet, or just under one-fifth of an acre. This is slightly larger but statistically not different from the lowest on record median of 8,177 square feet set a year ago. The share of smaller lots, under 0.16 acres, is now record high at… Read More ›
Recent Census data, combined with NAHB survey results, illustrate the way in which home buyers in the lower one-fourth of the market have been squeezed entirely out of the market for new construction, and forced to look exclusively in the stock of existing homes—where the inventory of homes available for sale remains in a historically low range (at a 2.5-month… Read More ›
Only 41 percent of single-family homes started in 2018 included fireplaces, according to NAHB tabulation of recently released data from the Survey of Construction (produced by the U.S. Census Bureau with partial funding from HUD). This percentage is the lowest on record since NAHB began tabulating the data in a consistent fashion in 2001. Since 2015, the share of single-family… Read More ›
New data released by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, combined with recent NAHB survey data, show a mismatch between the actual prices of new homes and the prices buyers expect to pay—providing further evidence for the growing problem of housing affordability. At the end of August, the Census Bureau released 2018 data from… Read More ›
Every year, the US Census Bureau publishes data on the characteristics of new single-family homes started in its Survey of Construction, including data on full and half bathrooms. In 2017, 4 percent of new single-family homes started had 1 full bathroom or less, 60 percent had 2 full bathrooms, 27 percent had 3 full bathrooms, and 9 percent had four… Read More ›
The US Census Bureau recently released data on 2017 multifamily unit completions by building type from the Survey of Construction (SOC). In 2017, there was a significant expansion in the construction of units in large multifamily buildings (buildings with 50 or more units): units in these buildings grew by 18 percent to 187,000, the largest number since the start of… Read More ›
Of the 729,000 single-family detached homes started in 2017, a little over 18,000 (2.5 percent) had three or more stories, according to NAHB tabulation of recently released Census data. The data come from the Survey of Construction (SOC, conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau with partial funding from HUD). Although the SOC has always collected data on 3-story single-family homes, the Census Bureau began publishing information on them only recently. Traditionally, the… Read More ›