NEWS: Home Building Growth Slowing in Many Large U.S. Suburbs

As the real estate market is finally reaching a slow-down, that is reflecting on the pace of home building across the country. 

Based on new data from the National Association of Home Builders' Home Building Geography Index, the rate of year-over-year single-family construction growth in small and large metro urban, suburban and rural regional submarkets slowed in the first quarter of 2022 compared to the same time period as last year, with notable deceleration in large suburban markets. In contrast, multifamily growth in large population centers has rebounded from negative growth rates and posted sharp gains during the same time period.

As the Chairman of the National Association of Home Builders, Jerry Konter, comments: 

"As the year has progressed, we have seen signs of an increasing slowdown in the single-family market. Ongoing building material production bottlenecks have delayed or stalled home building projects, construction labor shortages are running near an all-time high of 400,000 workers and more recently the rapid run-up in mortgage rates have all combined to exacerbate the housing affordability crisis."

On a recent article by the World Property Journal, some of the main take aways on this slow-down period are the following:

• Large metro core counties solidly recovered from a negative 3.6% growth rate to a positive 17.4% rate.
• Large metro suburban counties sharply rebounded from a negative 9.5% growth rate to a positive 31.4% rate.
• Low density counties posted an increase from a 5% growth rate to a 37.0% rate.