Single-family home construction permits fell 4.2% in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period last year, while multifamily permitting moved in the opposite direction, rising 4.5%, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data published August 14, 2026 by the National Association of Home Builders. The split shows two segments of the housing market moving on different tracks through the middle of the year, with single-family construction pulling back even as apartment and condo permitting held firmer ground.
The data, drawn from the Census Bureau’s Building Permits Survey, covers permits issued nationwide from January through June 2026. NAHB economist Danushka Nanayakkara-Skillington authored the analysis, which builds on the same Census permitting series RealtyWire has tracked through other recent state-level reports, including Florida’s 7% first-half permit decline.
The numbers
Builders pulled 465,301 single-family permits nationwide in the first six months of 2026, down from 485,935 in the same period a year earlier β a decline of 4.2%. Multifamily permits, by contrast, totaled 255,751 for the half, up 4.5% from the year-earlier period.
The regional pattern for single-family permitting was uneven. The Northeast recorded the steepest year-over-year drop, down 10.2%, followed by the West at -6.8% and the South at -3.6%. The Midwest was essentially flat. Multifamily permitting showed a mirror-image split: the Northeast posted the strongest growth, up 43.5%, followed by the West (+14.0%) and the Midwest (+1.4%), while the South was the only region to post a multifamily decline, down 8.9%.
At the state level, 13 states plus the District of Columbia saw single-family permits increase year over year, while the rest declined. Texas issued the most single-family permits of any state at 75,274, even though that total was down 3.6% from a year earlier. Nevada posted the steepest single-family drop among states, falling 26.0%. On the multifamily side, 33 states plus D.C. saw permit increases; California led with a 26.1% gain, while Nevada again posted the sharpest decline, down 51.2%.
Context: a longer slide for single-family permitting
The first-half figures extend a pattern that has shown up in other recent housing-market readings. RealtyWire has reported on NAHB’s second-quarter multifamily developer confidence survey, which found builder sentiment on new multifamily starts weakening even as the occupancy outlook softened β a reminder that stronger multifamily permitting numbers have not translated into uniformly strong builder confidence. Separately, new single-family home sales edged up in June even as prices kept falling, suggesting builders have been discounting to move inventory rather than ramping up new permit activity.
What it means
The facts: Single-family permits fell 4.2% and multifamily permits rose 4.5% nationally in the first half of 2026, per Census data as compiled by NAHB. Regional and state performance varied widely, with the Northeast the weakest single-family region and the strongest multifamily region simultaneously.
NAHB’s analysis: The Eye on Housing post presents the permitting split as a straightforward data comparison β single-family activity “continued to weaken” through the first half of the year while multifamily “remained somewhat stronger” β without attributing the divergence to specific causes such as mortgage rates, land costs, or buyer demand. Notably, the NAHB post itself does not offer an explanation for why the two segments are diverging.
RealtyWire’s read: The regional data is the most striking part of the release. The same three regions β Northeast, West, and Midwest β that posted the weakest single-family numbers posted the strongest multifamily numbers, while the South inverted that pattern entirely, with multifamily permitting falling even as single-family held up best of any region. That kind of regional cross-cutting suggests local supply and financing conditions, not a single national factor, are driving the split. Builders have separately told RealtyWire that rising competition for developable land from data centers has squeezed single-family land pipelines in some markets, a possible contributing factor the Census permitting data alone cannot confirm.
What to watch
The Census Bureau typically releases its next monthly Building Permits Survey update in early September, covering July 2026 data, which will show whether the first-half single-family slide continued into the third quarter or began to stabilize. NAHB’s Eye on Housing blog typically publishes its own analysis of that release within days of the Census report.
