Robert Dietz
Chief Economist at Eye On Housing (NAHB)
Chief Economist, National Association of Home Builders (@nahbhome). Former Joint Committee on Taxation economist.
Articles
-
2 weeks ago |
eyeonhousing.org | Robert Dietz
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, according to newly released data from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau.
-
2 weeks ago |
eyeonhousing.org | Robert Dietz
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 construction starts was 94% for the first quarter.
-
2 weeks ago |
eyeonhousing.org | Robert Dietz
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 first quarter of 2025, there were 5,000 2- to 4-unit housing unit construction starts.
-
2 weeks ago |
eyeonhousing.org | Robert Dietz
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 lower.
-
2 weeks ago |
eyeonhousing.org | Robert Dietz
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 a strong 175,000 homes, which is 2% higher than the prior four-quarter period (171,000).
Try JournoFinder For Free
Search and contact over 1M+ journalist profiles, browse 100M+ articles, and unlock powerful PR tools.
Start Your 7-Day Free Trial →X (formerly Twitter)
- Followers
- 7K
- Tweets
- 4K
- DMs Open
- No
New single-family home sales end 2024 up 2.5% compared to 2023. Total home inventory - new plus resale - made up about a 4 months' supply at the end of 2024, below the 6 measure typically considered balanced. https://t.co/BZgjbzN9YK
Single-family starts ended 2024 up 6.5%. The number of single-family homes under construction is down 5.3% from Dec 2023. The number of apartments under construction is down 21% from Dec 23. Missing middle multifamily (2 to 4 unit) up more than 40% in `24. https://t.co/rR74upRgIV
Builder confidence up slightly in January with countervailing positive and negative risks ahead: https://t.co/VBKTS56jx7