Just under 50% of homes in the U.S., according to a new survey, were built before Ronald Reagan was elected president the first time in 1980.
And the age of the country’s housing stock continues to increase, notes the American Community Survey, from an average of 31 years just two decades ago to 41 years today.
Those statistics, says a study published by the National Association of Home Builders, show that the housing stock has particularly aged “since the Great Recession, as residential construction continues to fall behind in delivering new homes.”
The Great Recession, in fact, saw the beginning of an aging house stock that greatly accelerated in the immediate years to come. When that economic downturn first hit, the median age of a home in the U.S. was at just under 33 years. By the time the Great Recession was finally at an end, the median age had jumped to 36 years. During Donald Trump’s first term in office up to the end of Joe Biden’s presidency, the average continued its increase, jumping from around 37 years to 41 years.
Looking at the trend from the opposite perspective, the NAHB study notes that new homes made up 15% of the nation’s housing stock between 2000 and 2009. That number dropped to 9% between 2010 and 2019. In the last three years, “new construction added nearly 2.6 million owner-occupied homes, accounting for only 3% of the owner-occupied housing stock as of 2023.”
The only industry that appears to have benefited in any significant way from these trends is the home remodeling business, says the NAHB study: “Older structures require updates to add new amenities or need repairs or replacements of old components.”
An earlier NAHB survey, in fact, showed that on a scale of one to 100, home remodelers rated their markets a 68 at the end of last year. That number has remained strong for the last five years, beginning with a remodeling boom during immediate pandemic months of spring 2020 to the spring of 2022 when it ranged between an unprecedented 73 and 87.
The NAHB study, meanwhile, indicates that a lack of new home construction is likely to continue due to three factors: “Rising material costs, persistent labor shortage, and elevated interest rates.”
May 12, 2025
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy of Unsplash
