How many new homes are built each year in the U.S.?

Q: How many new homes are built each year in the U.S.?

The U.S. completes approximately 900,000–1.1 million single-family homes and 400,000–500,000 multifamily units per year in the mid-2020s. New single-family home sales — which precede completions — were 679,000 in 2024, well below the 2005 peak of 1.28 million.

Question

Short answer. The U.S. completes approximately 900,000–1.1 million single-family homes and 400,000–500,000 multifamily units per year in the mid-2020s. New single-family home sales — which precede completions — were 679,000 in 2024, well below the 2005 peak of 1.28 million.

U.S. new home construction and sales by year (Census Bureau)
Year	Housing Starts	New Home Sales
2005	2.07M	1.28M
2009	554K	375K
2015	1.11M	501K
2020	1.38M	811K
2024	~1.36M	~683K

There are three ways to measure new homebuilding: housing starts (when construction begins), housing completions (when units are finished), and new-home sales (when a contract is signed, typically before completion). The Housing Almanac's annual data series tracks new-home sales, which lag starts by 6–12 months and lead completions by a similar margin.

New single-family sales: the Housing Almanac series

1963: 560,000
2005 (peak): 1,283,000
2011 (trough): 306,000
2020 (COVID surge): 822,000
2024: 679,000

Total housing starts (all types)

The Census Bureau's housing starts series counts all new residential units, including single-family and multifamily (apartments). Total U.S. housing starts in 2024 were approximately 1.36 million — composed of roughly 900,000 single-family starts and 460,000 multifamily starts. This compares to a 2005 peak of approximately 2.07 million total starts (1.72M single-family + 350K multifamily).

The under-building problem

From 2009 to 2019, the U.S. averaged approximately 900,000 total housing starts per year — well below the 1.5–1.7 million needed to keep pace with household formation (estimated at 1.1–1.4 million new households per year). This cumulative shortfall of 3–5 million units is the primary structural driver of the current affordability crisis. Even the 2020–2024 construction surge has not fully closed the deficit.

Why builders can't just build more

Construction costs have risen sharply: lumber, labor, and land are all more expensive in real terms than in 2019. Regulatory approval timelines in high-demand markets can be 2–5 years. And builders face affordability ceiling risk — at current construction costs, starter homes in most major metro areas cannot be profitably built at prices first-time buyers can afford.

Sources

U.S. Census Bureau Survey of Construction (new residential sales and housing starts); U.S. Census Bureau New Residential Construction data; National Association of Home Builders.