The flagship story

The year American homebuilding broke

In 1972 the United States started 2.38 million homes, 906,000 of them in buildings of five or more units. Neither number has been reached again. What follows is that story in five charts.

The full essay is being edited and will appear here shortly. The charts below are live; every series is also in the explorer.

The peak: 1972

Housing units started by structure type, 1945–present

The collapse: 1973–1975

What never came back

Government-built vs. tax-credit-financed units, 1935–present

Who builds changed too

Share of single-family starts by purpose, 1974–present

Building moved south

Private starts by Census region, 1959–present

The per-household lens

Housing starts per 1,000 households, 1940–present

Every chart above is one configuration of the explorer; sources and caveats are on the data page.