The National Association of Home Builders reports that analysis of the 2022 Survey of Construction (SOC) from the U.S. Census Bureau indicates that it took approximately one and a half months longer to build a single-family home in 2022 than it did in 2021. The 9.6 months in 2022 compared to 8.3 months in 2021 includes approximately a month’s time from authorization to construction.
NAHB attributes the increased time to supply side challenges and skilled labor shortages. According to NAHB’s Eye on Housing blog: Among all single-family houses completed in 2022, houses built for sale required the shortest amount of time, 8.9 months from obtaining building permits to completion, while houses built by owners (custom builds) required the longest time, 13.4 months.
The average time from permit to construction start varied geographically, with the longest time period 47 days in the South Atlantic region and the shortest 24 days in the East North Central region. The average time from authorization to completion also had geographic differences: the longest was New England, at 12.6 months, while the shortest was 8.6 months in the South Atlantic division.
Read more at NAHB’s Eye on Housing blog.
