As mortgage rates reach historic lows, prospective home buyers are in a strong position to purchase their first house. One of the most important questions prospective home buyers need to answer is whether they would prefer to buy a new or old home. However, housing inventory varies significantly by location and some parts of the country are more likely than others to have new homes.
Newly constructed homes have a lot of benefits for home buyers. According to a recent survey by the National Association of Realtors, buyers who purchase new homes enjoy having access to new community amenities, smart home features, higher energy efficiency, and new systems and appliances that shouldn’t soon require replacement or renovation. By contrast, buyers who purchase previously owned homes tend to prioritize affordability or value.
Research from the National Association of Home Builders shows that in 2018, 31 percent of home buyers wanted to purchase a brand-new home offered by a builder. For millennial home buyers, that number was even higher at 41 percent. However, according to data from the Census Bureau, only 20.4 percent of all homes in the U.S. were built in the past two decades. Furthermore, only 4.6 percent of homes were constructed after 2014. This constraint on inventory indicates that even if a home buyer would prefer a new home, they may not be able to find one.
Even though new housing inventory is limited nationwide, there are some locations where buyers are more likely to find a newer home. More specifically, states in the South and the West have a larger percentage of new homes. More than 30 percent of homes in Nevada, Utah, Texas, Arizona, and Idaho were built after 2000. On the other hand, the states with the lowest share of new homes are located in the Northeast and include Rhode Island (7.1 percent), New York (9.7 percent), and Massachusetts (11.6 percent). In fact, for these Northeast states—some of the oldest in the country—more than 30 percent of houses were constructed before 1940.
At a more local level, some fast-growing cities are experiencing a boom in housing construction, increasing the share of new homes on the market. To find which cities have the highest percentage of homes built after 2000, researchers at Porch analyzed housing data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2019 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates and pricing data from the Zillow Home Value Index.
Cities were categorized into groups based on population size: small (100,000–149,999), midsize (150,000–349,999), and large (350,000 or more). Similar to the statewide trends, the cities with the most homes built after 2000 are all located in the South and the West.
Here are the cities with the most new homes.
Large cities with the most new homes
Apart from price, all housing data used in this analysis is from the U.S. Census Bureau 2019 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates. Pricing data is from the Zillow Home Value Index. To identify the locations with the newest homes, researchers calculated the percentage of housing units built in 2000 or later. In the event of a tie, the location with more total housing units built since 2000 was ranked higher. The data on year built includes both occupied and vacant housing units. Year built refers to when the building was first constructed, not when it was remodeled. Both single-family homes and housing units in multi-unit structures (e.g. apartments, condominiums, etc.) are included.
To improve relevance, cities were grouped into cohorts based on population size: small (100,000–149,999), midsize (150,000–349,999), and large (350,000 or more). Additionally, only cities with at least 100,000 residents and data available from both Zillow and the Census Bureau were included.
