3% of all Single-Family Home Completions in 2020 were Non-Site Built

According to the U.S. Census Bureau Survey of Construction data, with analysis provided by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), the total share of non-site built single-family homes (modular and panelized) was a 3% of single-family completions in all of 2020. The NAHB anticipates that this share is expected to rise moderately in 2021 and in the years ahead, due to the ongoing labor shortage in the residential construction sector and the need to lift labor productivity amid declining housing affordability. For 2020, there were 28,000 total single-family units built using modular (11,000) and panelized/pre-cut (17,000) construction methods, out of a total of 912,000 total single-family homes completed. While the market share is small, there exists potential for expansion. Moreover, this 3% market share for 2020 represents a decline from years prior to the Great Recession. In 1998, 7% of single-family completions were modular (4%) or panelized (3%). This marked the largest share for the 1992-2020 period. Of note is the regional concentration found in the Northeast where 5% (3,000 homes) of the region’s 57,000 housing units completed were due to modular construction, the highest share in the country. With respect to multifamily construction, approximately 1% of multifamily buildings (properties, not units) were built using modular and panelized methods.