What America builds, one year at a time.
Every housing start the government has counted since 1889 — by structure type, region, builder, and funding source — assembled from the modern Census series and hand-transcribed postwar ledgers. Around 1970, nearly every one of those lines bends. Read the story or explore below.
Latest year: 2025 — 1,355,800 privately owned units started.
Everything here is counted in housing units, not buildings or projects: a 200-unit apartment building started counts as 200 units in the 5+ category.
1945–1958 (shaded, and flagged in the tooltip) is estimated: the revised postwar totals were never published by structure type, so shares from the older unrevised BLS series are applied to the revised totals. At 1959, the one year both bases exist, the old shares overstate multifamily by about one point — and the revision gap is five times larger in 1945, so early multifamily shares are best read as upper bounds.
The 2–4 vs. 5+ split begins in 1964. Gray years show all multifamily together (2+ units per building). Before 1959, nonfarm only; from 1959, private starts including farm homes.
Table view
| Year | Single-family | Units in 2–4-unit buildings | Units in 5+-unit buildings | Multifamily (split unavailable) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1945 | 287,500 | — | — | 38,500 |
| 1946 | 900,200 | — | — | 122,800 |
| 1947 | 1,105,500 | — | — | 162,500 |
| 1948 | 1,120,800 | — | — | 241,200 |
| 1949 | 1,135,900 | — | — | 330,100 |
| 1950 | 1,613,800 | — | — | 338,200 |
| 1951 | 1,229,800 | — | — | 261,200 |
| 1952 | 1,257,800 | — | — | 246,200 |
| 1953 | 1,221,700 | — | — | 216,300 |
| 1954 | 1,369,900 | — | — | 181,100 |
| 1955 | 1,478,800 | — | — | 167,200 |
| 1956 | 1,194,600 | — | — | 154,400 |
| 1957 | 1,025,500 | — | — | 198,500 |
| 1958 | 1,114,500 | — | — | 267,500 |
| 1959 | 1,234,000 | — | — | 283,000 |
| 1960 | 994,700 | — | — | 257,500 |
| 1961 | 974,300 | — | — | 338,700 |
| 1962 | 991,400 | — | — | 471,500 |
| 1963 | 1,012,400 | — | — | 590,800 |
| 1964 | 970,500 | 108,300 | 450,000 | — |
| 1965 | 963,700 | 86,700 | 422,500 | — |
| 1966 | 778,600 | 61,200 | 325,100 | — |
| 1967 | 843,900 | 71,700 | 376,100 | — |
| 1968 | 899,400 | 80,700 | 527,300 | — |
| 1969 | 810,600 | 85,100 | 571,200 | — |
| 1970 | 812,900 | 84,900 | 535,900 | — |
| 1971 | 1,151,000 | 120,500 | 780,900 | — |
| 1972 | 1,309,200 | 141,200 | 906,200 | — |
| 1973 | 1,132,000 | 118,200 | 795,000 | — |
| 1974 | 888,100 | 68,000 | 381,600 | — |
| 1975 | 892,200 | 64,000 | 204,300 | — |
| 1976 | 1,162,400 | 85,800 | 289,200 | — |
| 1977 | 1,450,900 | 121,700 | 414,400 | — |
| 1978 | 1,433,300 | 125,100 | 462,000 | — |
| 1979 | 1,194,100 | 122,000 | 429,000 | — |
| 1980 | 852,200 | 109,500 | 330,500 | — |
| 1981 | 705,400 | 91,200 | 287,700 | — |
| 1982 | 662,600 | 80,100 | 319,600 | — |
| 1983 | 1,067,600 | 113,500 | 522,000 | — |
| 1984 | 1,084,200 | 121,400 | 543,900 | — |
| 1985 | 1,072,400 | 93,500 | 576,000 | — |
| 1986 | 1,179,400 | 84,000 | 542,000 | — |
| 1987 | 1,146,400 | 65,100 | 408,700 | — |
| 1988 | 1,081,300 | 58,700 | 348,000 | — |
| 1989 | 1,003,300 | 55,300 | 317,600 | — |
| 1990 | 894,800 | 37,600 | 260,400 | — |
| 1991 | 840,400 | 35,600 | 137,900 | — |
| 1992 | 1,029,900 | 30,900 | 139,000 | — |
| 1993 | 1,125,700 | 29,400 | 132,600 | — |
| 1994 | 1,198,400 | 35,200 | 223,500 | — |
| 1995 | 1,076,200 | 33,800 | 244,100 | — |
| 1996 | 1,160,900 | 45,300 | 270,800 | — |
| 1997 | 1,133,700 | 44,500 | 295,800 | — |
| 1998 | 1,271,400 | 42,600 | 302,900 | — |
| 1999 | 1,302,400 | 31,900 | 306,600 | — |
| 2000 | 1,230,900 | 38,700 | 299,100 | — |
| 2001 | 1,273,300 | 36,600 | 292,800 | — |
| 2002 | 1,358,600 | 38,500 | 307,900 | — |
| 2003 | 1,499,000 | 33,500 | 315,200 | — |
| 2004 | 1,610,500 | 42,300 | 303,000 | — |
| 2005 | 1,715,800 | 41,100 | 311,400 | — |
| 2006 | 1,465,400 | 42,700 | 292,800 | — |
| 2007 | 1,046,000 | 31,700 | 277,300 | — |
| 2008 | 622,000 | 17,500 | 266,000 | — |
| 2009 | 445,100 | 11,600 | 97,300 | — |
| 2010 | 471,200 | 11,400 | 104,300 | — |
| 2011 | 430,600 | 10,900 | 167,300 | — |
| 2012 | 535,300 | 11,400 | 233,900 | — |
| 2013 | 617,600 | 13,600 | 293,700 | — |
| 2014 | 647,900 | 13,700 | 341,700 | — |
| 2015 | 714,500 | 11,500 | 385,800 | — |
| 2016 | 781,500 | 11,500 | 380,800 | — |
| 2017 | 848,900 | 11,400 | 342,700 | — |
| 2018 | 875,800 | 13,900 | 360,300 | — |
| 2019 | 887,700 | 13,400 | 388,900 | — |
| 2020 | 990,500 | 12,300 | 376,800 | — |
| 2021 | 1,127,200 | 11,700 | 462,100 | — |
| 2022 | 1,005,200 | 16,400 | 531,000 | — |
| 2023 | 947,700 | 13,400 | 458,800 | — |
| 2024 | 1,012,900 | 18,000 | 336,200 | — |
| 2025 | 939,700 | 19,200 | 396,900 | — |