Single-family permitting softened over the course of 2025 and finished the year weaker than the prior year. After showing some resilience in 2024, permitting activity gradually lost momentum as elevated mortgage rates and ongoing affordability constraints weighed on buyer demand. By year’s end, the pace of single-family permit issuance was below the level recorded in 2024, signaling a pullback in new construction. Multifamily permitting followed a more uneven path during 2025, reflecting the sector’s typical volatility, but ended the year on a stronger footing.
Over the year, the number of single-family permits issued nationwide reached 909,280. On a year-over-year basis, this represents a 7.4 percent decline compared with the December 2024 year-to-date total of 981,834. Multifamily permitting activity was stronger, with 516,886 permits issued nationwide, marking a 5.6 percent increase from the same period last year.
Regionally, year-to-date single-family permitting increased in only one of the four regions through December. The Midwest posted a slight gain of 0.3 percent, while activity declined in the Northeast (down 1.9 percent), the South (down 8.5 percent), and the West (down 10.4 percent). Multifamily permits increased in three of the four regions, led by gains in the West (up 17.6 percent), followed by the Midwest (up 9.8 percent), and then the South (up 4.9 percent). The Northeast saw a sharp decline of 12.4 percent, driven largely by a 21.0 percent drop in the New York–Newark–Jersey City metropolitan area.
Read more: https://eyeonhousing.org/2026/03/single-family-permits-end-2025-on-a-soft-note/