Single-Family Home Building Permits Tank in First Quarter as Multifamily Rises

Over the first three months of 2026, there were 214,655 permits issued nationwide to construct new single-family homes, down 7.6% from Q1 2025. Multifamily permits, however, grew 7.1% to 121,404 total units.

Elevated financing costs, ongoing affordability challenges, and softer builder sentiment continued to weigh on single-family construction activity, while multifamily permitting remained supported by demand for rental housing.

All regions of the U.S. experienced a hit on single-family home building permits, with the Midwest essentially flat but other regions dropping significantly. The South also saw a drop in multifamily permits, but all other regions were up in that category, including soaring multifamily permits in the Northeast and Western U.S.

At the state level, just 12 states recorded year-over-year increases in single-family permits in March, with gains ranging from 18.6% in Alabama to 0.2% in Minnesota. The remaining 38 states reported declines, led by Maryland, which posted the steepest drop at 25.4%.

The ten states issuing the highest number of single-family permits accounted for 63.7% of all single-family permits issued nationwide. Texas led the country with 35,231 single-family home permits issued at the end of Q1 2026, although this represented an 8.3% decline compared with March 2025. Florida, the second-highest state, saw permits fall by 6.7%, while North Carolina, ranked third, experienced a decline of 15.4%.

For more on home building permits in the first quarter, including a deeper dive on multifamily permitting and the top metro areas for permits, read this post on the NAHB economics blog Eye on Housing.