A recent National Assn. of Home Builders (NAHB) analysis of the Survey of Construction (SOC) shows that, nationally, there were 779,082 new single-family units started in 2016, 10% higher than 2015.
According to the NAHB tabulation of data from the 2016 Survey of Construction, new single-family housing starts were divided into the nine Census divisions, including Pacific, Mountain, West North Central, West South Central, East North Central, East South Central, Middle Atlantic, South Atlantic, and New England. The map and figure below provide a more geographically detailed analysis on new single-family housing starts for each of the nine Census divisions.
As shown in the map, in the South Atlantic, West South Central and Mountain Divisions new single-family units started exceeded 100k in 2016. These three divisions represent 21 states, approximately 41% of the 50 states and DC, but the number of new single-family housing starts in these three divisions accounted for about 60% of the total new single-family housing starts in 2016. Additionally, there were 81,637 new single-family units started in the Pacific Division and 74,054 units started in the East North Central Division in 2016. The Pacific Division shared 10% of the total new single-family housing starts, while the East North Central Division shared 9%. The other four divisions, including East South Central, West North Central, Middle Atlantic and New England, shared 21% of the total new single-family housing starts.
