Minority-owned residential construction firms constituted a larger portion of the market in 2012 than in 2007, according to data from NAHB.
While the total number of single-family builders, multifamily builders, and residential remodelers dropped by 12 percent from 2007 to 2012 (going from 780,000 residential construction firms to 689,000), the number of firms owned by minorities increased 44 percent, from 109,000 firms to 157,000.
In 2007, minority-owned firms were 14 percent of the industry, and by 2012 the figure was up to 23 percent.
NAHB notes that the not all the firms are the same. The number of minority-owned firms with paid employees was up only five percent from 2007 to 2012, but the number of those firms without payroll increased 49 percent.
