Final data for 2025 reveal relatively flat conditions for townhouse construction volume in a year that saw broad-based declines for single-family home building.
Townhouse construction ended 2025 with a soft quarter. According to NAHB analysis of the most recent Census data of Starts and Completions by Purpose and Design, during the fourth quarter of 2025, single-family attached starts totaled 38,000. Despite recent gains, this was the weakest quarter for the sector since the start of 2023.
Over the course of 2025, townhouse construction starts totaled 173,000 homes, effectively flat compared to 2024 (174,000). Townhouses made up more than 17% of all of single-family housing starts for the fourth quarter of the year.
Using a one-year moving average, the market share of newly-built townhouses stood at 18.4% of all single-family starts for the third quarter. In the third quarter of 2025, the four-quarter moving average market share was the highest on record for data going back to 1985.
Prior to the current cycle, the peak market share of the last two decades for townhouse construction was set during the first quarter of 2008, when the percentage reached 14.6% on a one-year moving average basis. This high point was set after a fairly consistent increase in the share beginning in the early 1990s.
The long-run prospects for townhouse construction are positive given growing numbers of homebuyers looking for medium-density residential neighborhoods, such as urban villages that offer walkable environments and other amenities. Where it can be zoned, it can be built.
This article was originally published by a eyeonhousing.org . Read the Original article here. .
