Every Friday, MBA's Chart of the Week provides commentary and analysis on a variety of data sources, from publicly available BLS and Census data, to proprietary data from MBA's own surveys and studies.

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Current Chart of the Week

Source: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Census Bureau’s American Housing Survey.

At the end of September 2024, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Census Bureau released 2023 American Housing Survey (AHS) data. The AHS, updated every two years, is the “most comprehensive national housing survey in the United States,” and provides information about the quality and cost of housing, including data on “the physical condition of homes and neighborhoods, the costs of financing and maintaining homes, and the characteristics of people who live in these homes.” The latest data show that there were 145.3 million housing units in 2023, of which 144.8 million were suitable for year-round use, and 134.9 million were occupied.

In this week’s MBA Chart of the Week, we show the stock of homes in the U.S. by the decade built and by building type. The chart indicates that the housing stock in the U.S. is aging:

• As of 2023 there were 11.8 million units built in the 2010s. This is less than the 2023 stock for any other decade going back to the 1940s and is 39% lower than the stock of housing units built in the 2000s (19.2 million).
• The median age of the 2023 housing stock was 44 years (versus 39 years a decade ago in the 2013 AHS data). 

The chart also shows that the stock of occupied units by building type has evolved:

• The 2023 stock of 1-4-unit housing units consists of over 14.4 million for residences built in the 2000s versus 7.8 million for residences built in the 2010s. That is, the 2023 stock of 1-4-unit single-family homes was 85% higher for those built between 2000-2009 than those built between 2010-2019.
• On the other hand, the 2023 stock in 5+ unit buildings was 3.5 million for housing units built in the 2000s versus 3.4 million for units built in the 2010s, and the stock in buildings with 20+ units was 2.0 million for units built in the 2000s versus 2.4 million for units built in the 2010s.

These data highlight the relative lack of new construction since the financial crisis. Coupled with the disruptions from the pandemic, strong housing demand from millennial and Gen-Z, and boomers aging-in-place, the U.S. housing market is structurally low on supply. The good news is that awareness of this issue is taking center stage across the country, and MBA’s latest forecast predicts that housing starts will increase over the next couple of years from a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.35 million this year to 1.41 million in 2025 and 1.43 million in 2026.

• Eddie Seiler ([email protected])