What Is the Most Common Siding Material for Single-Family Homes?

According to the annual data from the Census Bureau’s Survey of Construction (SOC), stucco was the most common principal siding material (26.8%) for new single-family homes started in 2023. Other common materials include:

• Vinyl siding (25.6%),
• Fiber cement siding (21.7%), and
• Brick or brick veneer (18.5%).

Small shares of single-family homes started last year had wood or wood products (5.1%) and stone, rock or other stone materials (1.2%) as the principal exterior wall material.

Since NAHB began tracking this data in 2000, the strongest trend has been the growing popularity in fiber cement siding. The share of fiber cement siding has increased by five percentage points in the last 10 years and is up by 14.2 percentage points in the past 20 years.

Another major trend is the decline of vinyl siding. Although it has remained steady in recent years, the share has dropped 5.3 percentage points in the last 10 years and 12.8 percentage points in the last 20 years.

Stucco has also been relatively flat in recent years but has seen an overall incline since 2000. After a low in 2010 of 17.3%, its share has risen almost 10 percentage points in 2023.  

Onnah Dereski, NAHB manager of economic services, highlights which exterior siding materials are most common in each of the nine U.S. Census divisions in this Eye on Housing post.