According to the Census Bureau’s Survey of Construction (SOC), two or more stories comprised more than half of the new single-family homes constructed in 2025.
The percentage of residences started with two or more stories decreased in 2025, following an increase in 2024.
Nevertheless, the disparity between shares of one-story and two-or-more-story buildings has remained relatively consistent since 2021, with only minor fluctuations from year to year.
The proportion of new homes with two or more storeys decreased from 52.5% in 2024 to 51.4% in 2025 on a national scale, while the proportion of new homes with one story increased from 47.5% to 48.6%.
In 2025, over half of the new homes constructed nationwide were two or more stories, despite the decline.
However, the percentage of multistory homes varied substantially across the country.
The Midwest and the South tended to favor single-story homes when building new homes, as illustrated below.
Conversely, the Northeast and the West had a higher proportion of homes with two or more stories. Single-story homes comprised 55.7% of new residences initiated in the East North Central division and 54.3% in the West North Central division in the Midwest.
Single-story shares in East South Central and West South Central attained 61.7% and 56.6%, respectively, in the Southern region.
The South Atlantic division was the exception, with the plurality of homes consisting of two or more stories (54.2%).
Single-story proportions were lowest in New England (25.7%) and the Middle Atlantic (26.5%), outside the Midwest and the South, while they were highest in the Pacific (47.5%) and Mountain (41.9%) divisions.
The East North Central and East South Central divisions experienced a multi-year high in single-story shares, compared to 2024.
Conversely, the West North Central and West South Central divisions experienced a multi-year low in such shares.
In the Northeast, where two- or more-story homes are more prevalent, New England experienced a rebound, while the Middle Atlantic continued to decline.
Over the past few years, two divisions in the West have exhibited opposing trends.
In seven of the last eight years, the proportion of single-story buildings in the Pacific has increased, rising from 32.7% in 2017 to 47.5% in 2025.
Nevertheless, the Mountain division experienced the opposite, with a decline from a high of 50.7% in 2020 to 41.9% in 2025.
Focusing on new residences with three or more stories, the national share increased to 5.2% from 5.0% in 2017.
The Mountain division has experienced a twofold increase in share, from 3.0% to 6.6%, while the smallest increase over the past eight years has been concentrated in New England (from 7.2% to 14.1%) and the Middle Atlantic (from 14.0% to 15.1%).
In most divisions, new homes with three or more stories were less prevalent in the Midwest and South, with less than 3% of new homes being initiated in these regions, with the exception of the South Atlantic, which had a rate of 5.0%.
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