Elevated interest rates, rising material costs and labor shortages contributed to the decline of single-family homes constructed across all geographies in the first quarter of 2026, according to the National Association of Home Builders’ Home Building Geography Index data.
Large metro core counties were hit hardest, with a 16.0% year-over-year decline and a 3.2 percentage point drop from the quarter before. Single-family construction in non-rural areas (counties within a metro area) fell 9.2%.
In every quarter over the last decade, large metro core counties have lost an average of 0.1 percentage points of single-family market share, with the pace increasing after the pandemic, NAHB said. Additionally, large metro suburban counties have lost 3.3 percentage points of market share during the past decade.
Smaller and outlying markets have absorbed the gains instead. Outlying counties in small metros gained nearly two percentage points compared with a decade ago, as well as 0.7 percentage points from the first quarter of 2025, capturing 10.8% market share.
Read the full report here.
