High Posts – The Age of the U.S. Housing Inventory

With the top of 2024 approaching, NAHB’s Eye on Housing is reviewing the posts that attracted probably the most readers during the last yr. In February, Na Zhao shared the newest knowledge on ages of house owners in addition to when their properties have been constructed. 

The median age of owner-occupied properties is 40 years previous, in line with the newest knowledge from the 2022 American Group Survey[1]. The U.S. owner-occupied housing inventory is ageing quickly particularly after the Nice Recession, because the residential building continues to fall behind within the variety of new properties constructed. New dwelling building faces headwinds resembling rising materials prices, labor scarcity, and elevated rates of interest these days.

With a scarcity of adequate provide of latest building, the ageing housing inventory alerts a rising transforming market, as previous buildings want so as to add new facilities or restore/change previous elements. Rising dwelling costs additionally encourage householders to spend extra on dwelling enchancment. Over the long term, the ageing of the housing inventory implies that transforming might develop sooner than new building.

New building added practically 1.7 million models to the nationwide inventory from 2020  to 2022, accounting for under 2% of owner-occupied housing inventory in 2022. Comparatively newer owner-occupied properties constructed between 2010 and 2019 took up round 9%.  Proprietor-occupied properties constructed between 2000 and 2009 make up 15% of the housing inventory. The bulk, or round 60%, of the owner-occupied properties have been constructed earlier than 1980, with round 35% constructed earlier than 1970.

As a result of modest provide of housing building, the share of latest building constructed throughout the previous 12 years declined enormously, from 17% in 2012 to solely 11% in 2022. In the meantime, the share of housing inventory that’s not less than 53 years previous skilled a major enhance over the ten years in the past. The share in 2022 was 35% in comparison with 29% in 2012.

[1] : Census Bureau didn’t launch the usual 2020 1-year American Group Survey (ACS) as a result of knowledge assortment disruptions skilled through the COVID-19 pandemic. The information high quality points for some matters stay within the experimental estimates of the 2020 knowledge. To be cautious, the 2020 experimental knowledge shouldn’t be included within the evaluation.