As Builders Struggled to Find Lots, 9 Percent of All New Homes in 2021 Were Teardowns

Of all new single-family homes built in 2021, 9.1 percent were constructed on sites where the previous structure had to be torn down and rebuilt, according to NAHB Eye On Housing. In addition, roughly 18.5 percent were built on an infill lot in an older neighborhood, while the resounding majority (59.3%) were located in new residential developments.

Though most new single-family projects were completed in new developments, an elevated share of teardowns and infills reflects growing difficulties for builders struggling to find new lots in some parts of the country.

At the high end, about one-in-five (20.1 percent) of single-family homes were built on a lot where a structure had to be torn down first in the Pacific division, followed at a distance by the three divisions on the East Coast: New England (13.6 percent), the Middle Atlantic (12.9 percent), and South Atlantic (11.4 percent). At the other end of the scale, fewer than 5 percent of new single-family homes represented teardowns in the Mountain (4.7 percent), West North Central (4.3 percent) and West South Central (3.8 percent) states.

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