NAHB analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Construction found that single-family home starts grew 9 percent in 2017 from a year before, to 847,830 new units.
The growth in home starts was not spread evenly throughout the U.S., however. According to the NAHB’s Eye on Housing blog, the three areas with the highest growth, the South Atlantic, West South Central, and Mountain Divisions, account for approximately 41 percent of the 50 states and Washington, D.C., but new single-family housing starts in the divisions accounted for about 60 percent of the total 2017 housing starts. Four of the nine census areas saw growth higher than the 9 percent national average.
In 2017, national new single-family housing starts reached 63 percent of the pre-recession normal of 1,338,090 home starts, the average number of starts between 2000 and 2003. The West South Central Division was the closest to recovering, at 93 percent, while the East North Central Division is furthest away, at 46 percent.
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