Do Buyers Still Want Pools?

After a rapid expansion of residential swimming pool and spa construction following the pandemic, permit levels in the latest monthly index for December fell to their lowest level since 2020. As of December 2025, pool construction permits were 34.3% lower than the January 2020 reading, the baseline for this index. The index was down 25.5% from the month prior and down 34.7% from one year ago.

The Pool Construction Permit Index, created by NAHB using proprietary data from Construction Monitor, can be used to track pool and spa construction projects nationwide. The raw data used to create the index has strong seasonality — with most permits submitted during warmer months, such as May and June — so a seasonally adjusted index was created to account for the seasonal changes.

For the seasonally adjusted estimates, pool construction permits continued to peak in 2021 but have steadily declined to lower levels. The current December reading is 23.4% lower than our index base of January 2020, down 26.8% from a month ago, and 37.3% lower than last year. The seasonally adjusted data, shown in red above, allows for a clear visualization of how the Pool Construction Permit Index has changed over the past five years. December data was the lowest in the data series.

For more information, including a geographic analysis of pool construction, check out this Eye on Housing post.