A new bill introduced in the House by Rep. Nanette Barragán, the Housing Tariff Exclusion Act (H.R. 10416), would create a tariff exemption process for building materials. With building material costs rising, tariffs further strain builder margins and ultimately lead to higher prices for buyers. “This bill would help relieve tariff-driven cost pressures on building materials, provide businesses with greater certainty and support broader efforts to improve housing affordability,” said NAHB Chairman Bill Owens. The Housing Tariff Exclusion Act would establish a Commerce Department process to request an exception and grant refunds…
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Women in working in construction reaches record high
According to the National Association of Home Builders, the share of women working in construction has risen to a 20-year high. Recent data puts women’s share of the workforce at 11.3%. From 2024 to 2025, an estimated 31,000 women joined the industry, adding to the 1.37 million total. NAHB reports that this is a wide comeback for women’s participation since the Great Recession. From 2007 to 2010, an estimated 300,000 women left the industry workforce. This increase is largely attributed to more white-collar positions in the industry, such as administrative…
Read MoreExisting home prices outpace new homes nationally
The headline may read, “Existing home prices outpace new homes nationally,” but the flip in recent years tells a different story regionally. Normally, new homes are more expensive than existing homes. However, since the pandemic, the housing market faced an unusual accumulation of headwinds: buyers who bought with prime low mortgage rates are not willing to give them up, supply chain pressures and tighter inventory. Now, new homebuilders are offering solutions such as building on smaller lots and incentives, among other solutions. Yet, this headline is only relevant to specific markets…
Read MoreAverage home build time falls to 8.8 months
New research from the Census Bureau’s Survey of Construction and analysis from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) show that the timeline from permit to completion of a new single-family home has decreased from the post-pandemic highs. Estimates in the most recent data from 2025 report that it now takes about 8.8 months on average from start to completion. While this is higher than the 2015 estimate of 7.2 months, the downward trend from the 2023 high of 10.1 months exhibits signs of cooling in supply chain holdups. The…
Read MoreSmall metros carry weight of homebuilding activity
According to the National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) Home Building Geography Index (HBGI), single-family construction declined across nearly all major metros in Q2 2026. The data reported that densely populated metro counties continued their fifth quarter of decline and fell 13.9%. However, the decline was not as steep compared to the previous quarter’s 15.8%. The smaller markets, noted as outlying counties in small metro areas and the microcounty, saw improvements. The outlying counties in small metro areas grew for the first time in a year, posting a reasonable 0.9%…
Read MoreConstruction declines for SFBTR
According to recent analysis from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) of the Census Bureau’s Quarterly Starts and Completions by Purpose and Design, construction of single-family build-to-rent (SFBTR) homes declined throughout 2026. Compared to single-family housing construction, SFBTR faces stronger headwinds from the cost of financing, increased multifamily supply and regulatory action. Q2 2026 (15,000) posted an estimated 3,000 fewer starts than Q2 2025 (18,000). NAHB’s analysis pointed out that over the past four quarters, SFBTR construction starts fell by about 16%. “While the market share of SFBFR homes is small,…
Read MoreHow builder size impacts material costs
A majority of builders agree that building a home is 15% more expensive now than it was this time last year. According to the National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) July 2026 NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI), builders feel the pain of these increases, but especially the smaller builders. The HMI results aligned with reality, with 28.4% of builders reporting that common material prices increased by 5% to 9.99%. Analysis of July’s PPI indicated that the price of goods increased 6.7% year over year. “Not all builders experienced the…
Read MoreBuilding material prices see growth in July
According to the National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) Producer Price Index, residential building material prices rose 0.4% in July 2026 and were up 5.0% from last year. The price index for inputs to new residential construction fell 0.1% in July, but was up 6.5% from the year before. The price of goods used in new residential construction, including energy, was up 0.1% over the month and up 6.7% from last year, while the price of services was down 0.3% over the month and up 6.2% from last year. Among…
Read MoreExisting home sales 0.7% higher than last year
According to the National Association of Realtors, on a year-over-year basis, existing home sales were 0.7% higher than last year. However, total existing home sales, including single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, fell 1.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.06 million in July 2026. The July median sales price of all existing homes was $434,100, up 2.0% from last year. This marks the 37th consecutive month of year-over-year increases. Existing home sales in July were mixed across the four major regions: Sales fell in the South and Midwest,…
Read MoreCalifornia, Texas and Florida drive remodeling activity
According to first-quarter results from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) State Projections of Remodeling (SPR), three states account for the largest shares of remodeling activity across the nation: California, Texas and Florida. In the first quarter of 2026, California led remodeling activity, accounting for 8% of the market at $22.2 billion. Texas followed close behind at $20.2 billion, or 7.3%, followed by Florida at $15.4 billion, or 5.5%. For market growth, the SPR identified five states as having the largest increases in remodeling spending in the first quarter:…
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