Housing Construction Hotspots: Where Is America Building New Homes in 2026?

Key Findings

• Overall, the new construction rate is flat. The top 150 U.S. metros combined issued 524,737 total residential permits in the first half of 2026, nearly unchanged from 524,317 in H1 2025. This is an increase of just 0.1%.
• Single-family construction is declining. Permits for single-family (1-unit) homes fell 5.2% nationally in the first half of 2026.
• Apartment construction is surging. Permits for buildings with 5+ units rose 11.2%.
• Coastal metros are the biggest gainers. In the first half of 2026, Seattle (+67%), San Jose (+125%), Boston (+48%), Los Angeles (+43%), Washington, D.C. (+43%), and New York City (+39%) all posted major increases in residential building permits.
• Florida's building boom is stalling. Six of the state's top metros posted double-digit declines in the latest data from the Building Permit Survey. 

Residential building permits offer one of the clearest early indicators of where new housing is likely to emerge. By analyzing construction permit data from the U.S. Census Bureau's Building Permits Survey across the 150 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, InMyArea.com examined where construction is accelerating, where it is slowing, and how it compares to population growth.

That shift arrives at a pivotal moment for federal housing policy. On July 11, 2026, the ROAD to Housing Act was officially signed into law, aiming to unlock construction in the very markets that have chronically underbuilt relative to demand. The timing raises an obvious question for the rest of 2026: is this the start of a policy-driven building rebound, or a rebalancing that was already underway? What follows is the baseline against which the Act's impact will be measured in the coming quarters

Which Metros Are Building the Most?

Across the 150 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, builders pulled roughly the same number of permits between January and June 2026 as they did in the first half of 2025: 524,737 versus 524,317. On its face, that looks like a market that has found equilibrium. But averaging the country's construction activity obscures two opposing trends: a nationwide retreat from single-family building and a resurgence in apartment and multifamily permitting.

Building permits for single-family housing, which still comprise the majority of American homes, dropped five percent year over year. Meanwhile, permits for buildings with five or more units climbed 11 percent, suggesting that where growth is happening, it's increasingly vertical rather than horizontal.

Zooming in, Texas metros continue to lead the nation in sheer construction volume, though both of its flagship metros are pulling back. 34,008 construction permits were issued in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in the first half of 2026, down around six percent from a year earlier. In early 2026, Houston issued 29,312 permits, a steeper 16 percent decline. 

Top 10 Metro Areas by Total Residential Building Permits Issued, H1 2026

What jumps out immediately is how thoroughly the leaderboard has been reshuffled from a coastal-versus-Sun Belt standpoint. New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., three of the most notoriously difficult places to build in the country, all cracked the top 10 with permit gains above 39 percent. At the same time, three of the four fastest-growing Sun Belt darlings of recent years (Phoenix, Charlotte, and to a lesser extent Dallas and Houston) posted declines in the number of residential building permits issued.

Which Cities Will Have Increased Home Construction?

If there's a single storyline defining the first half of 2026, it's the reawakening of expensive coastal construction markets that have underbuilt for a decade. San Jose's 125 percent surge in residential building permit issuance is the most dramatic example nationwide, but it's part of a broader pattern.

Metros With the Biggest Percentage Gains in Residential Building Permits, H1 2026 vs. H1 2025

Six of the metros posting the largest gains (Seattle, Boston, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and San Jose among them) are large, high-cost, historically supply-constrained coastal markets. That several of these regions are now seeing permit growth in the 40-125 percent range suggests either loosened local zoning and approval processes, a wave of pent-up multifamily projects finally breaking ground, or both. A handful of smaller, unexpected markets (Auburn-Opelika, AL; Green Bay, WI; Jackson, MS) also appear on this list, hinting that the multifamily surge isn't purely a coastal phenomenon, but it's showing up in smaller metros too, just less consistently.

Where is Construction Cooling Fastest?

The decline list is dominated by two groups: Sun Belt and Florida metros leveling from pandemic-era construction booms, and a scattering of smaller Midwest and Northeast metros.

Metros With the Biggest Declines in Residential Building Permits, H1 2026 vs. H1 2025

Some Florida metros cooled notably, claiming five of the 15 steepest declines in building permit issuance: Orlando, Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Deltona-Daytona Beach, Lakeland-Winter Haven, and Tallahassee. Combined with Miami's 19 percent drop and North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota's 15 percent decline (both outside this top-15 list but notable given their prior status as national leaders), it's possible that the Sunshine State’s multi-year building boom could be losing steam.

What Metros Will Build Most Single-Family Homes?

Despite the national five percent decline in single-family permitting, the same Sun Belt metros that have dominated single-family construction for years still top the list in absolute terms, but they're building less than they were a few years ago.

Top 20 Metros by Single-Family Permits Issued, H1 2026 vs. H1 2025

Only a handful of metros in this group posted single-family housing construction gains: Los Angeles (up three percent), North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota (up 13 percent), Raleigh (essentially flat at 0.3%), Chicago (+0.3%), and Boise (+1.3%). Notably, Los Angeles is growing on both the single-family and overall permitting fronts — a sign that its 43 percent total permit increase isn't purely an apartment story, even though multifamily construction is almost certainly doing most of the heavy lifting nationally.

What This Means for Movers 

Taken together, the latest building permit data suggests the housing construction map is being redrawn, and that shift has real implications for anyone weighing a move.

If you're eyeing a new home in a Sun Belt or Florida metro that's been a construction darling for years, expect the calculus to be different than it was in 2023 or 2024. Metros like Orlando, Charlotte, Cape Coral-Fort Myers, and Columbus are pulling back sharply on new permits, which means fewer new listings entering the pipeline and less competitive pricing pressure from oversupply than in recent years. That could mean tighter inventory and less negotiating leverage for buyers in these markets going forward, even if prices there have felt relatively soft lately.

On the flip side, several notoriously expensive, supply-constrained coastal metros (Seattle, Boston, New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. among them) are seeing a building resurgence for the first time in years. For renters and buyers who've been priced out of these markets, more permits today could translate into more housing options a year or two from now, particularly for apartment-seekers, since most of the new supply in these metros is multifamily rather than single-family. It's not an immediate fix, but it's a meaningful change in direction worth watching if one of these cities is on your list.

If you specifically want a single-family home with a yard, pay attention to where that type of construction is actually still growing: Los Angeles, North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, Raleigh, Chicago, and Boise are among the few large metros where single-family permitting held up or grew even as it declined nationally. Elsewhere, especially in dense coastal cities, new construction is increasingly apartments and condos, so house-hunters set on a detached home may find more of what they want by looking at these markets instead.

Finally, keep an eye on the ROAD to Housing Act. If it does what it's intended to do, some of today's tightest, most expensive markets could open up further over the next year or two, which is exactly the kind of shift that changes where it makes sense to plant roots.

Methodology

This analysis is based on residential building permit data from the U.S. Census Bureau's Building Permits Survey, covering the 150 largest U.S. metropolitan areas. All figures compare cumulative permits issued in the first half (January–June) of 2026 against the same period in 2025. Single-family (SF) permits refer to 1-unit residential structures; multifamily figures refer to buildings with 5 or more units.

Limitations: This analysis reflects permitted housing, not completed units, and actual construction timelines can vary significantly based on labor availability, materials costs, and financing conditions. Permit data is also subject to revision as municipalities report updated figures to the Census Bureau.