Rising Trends in Number of Bathrooms in Single-Family Homes

A majority of single-family homes started in 2023 continued to have two full bathrooms. According to the latest release of the Census Bureau’s Survey of Construction, 64.7% of new single-family homes had two full bathrooms, 23.8% had three full bathrooms, 6.9% had four or more full bathrooms, and only 4.6% had one full bathroom or less.

The share of single-family homes with two bathrooms increased from 62.3% to 64.7% — the largest increase since 2018. This reverses a two-year trend of consecutive decreases. The share of single-family starts with three full bathrooms fell for the second straight year, down to 23.8%, and the share of single-family homes started with 4 or more bathrooms share decreased to 6.9%, after increasing the prior two years. Meanwhile, the share of single-family starts with one full bathroom or less rose to 4.6% — the third straight increase.

Geographically, the New England census division had the highest share of new single-family starts with two full bathrooms at 75.6%. This share jumped by 22.2 percentage points from 2022, and this was the first time since 2017 that the New England share was the largest in the nation. The lowest share census division was the Middle Atlantic, with 50.0% of new single-family starts reporting two full bathrooms. The share of new single-family started with two full bathrooms fell 9.2 percentage points from 2022 in the Middle Atlantic.

Jesse Wade, NAHB director of tax and trade policy analysis, provides more details, including trends on half bathrooms, in this Eye on Housing post.