(Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Electricalmarketing 1855 Home Construction Justin Sullivan Gettyimages 461907976 1024
Electricalmarketing 1855 Home Construction Justin Sullivan Gettyimages 461907976 1024
Electricalmarketing 1855 Home Construction Justin Sullivan Gettyimages 461907976 1024
Electricalmarketing 1855 Home Construction Justin Sullivan Gettyimages 461907976 1024
Electricalmarketing 1855 Home Construction Justin Sullivan Gettyimages 461907976 1024

Single-Family Housing Starting to Heat Up

April 6, 2018
In its 2018-2019 housing market forecast, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), Washington, DC, forecasts +4.9% growth in 2018 for single-family housing starts and a -1.1% drop this year.

The 2017 year-end building permit data for local markets reinforces the dual trends that single-family housing construction is picking up nicely, while multi-family construction is slowing down from its a rapid pace over the past few years.

In its 2018-2019 housing market forecast, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), Washington, DC, forecasts +4.9% growth in 2018 for single-family housing starts and a -1.1% drop this year.  Next year, NAHB is calling for a +5.5% increase in single-family construction and another -1.1% drop in multi-family.

Not too many surprises in the markets seeing the most growth in single-family building permits, with perennial housing stars like Dallas, Phoenix Houston, Austin and Atlanta on the list of MSAs that enjoyed increase of at least 1,000 single-family permits year-over-year. Joining this elite company in 2017 were two Florida markets -- Tampa and Jacksonville. As you can see in this map, local markets all over the United States enjoyed some good growth in single-family housing last year. But it never ceases to amaze Electrical Marketing’s editors just how concentrated much of this activity is, with the 10 largest MSAs accounting for 21% of all single-family building permits and the Top 100 taking in 56% of all permits. As you can imagine, the vast majority of these MSAs are in Sunbelt states. In fact, 10 states accounted for well over half of all single-family building permits pulled last year:  Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Washington.

Although relatively few electrical distributors, manufacturers or reps focus solely on the residential market, it's still big business for the overall electrical wholesaling industry. It typically accounts for roughly 20% of sales through electrical distributors. For 2018, that an estimated $21 billion according to Electrical Wholesaling's 2018 Market Planning Guide.

To download the 2017 building permit data at the MSA and state level, click here.