The 2000s boom, the bust and the recovery in permits
US housing permits peaked at 2,155,316 units in 2005 and bottomed at 582,963 in 2009, a fall of 73%. By 2025 the national count had climbed back to 1,431,616, 66% of the peak. The path from boom to today differed enormously from one metro area to the next.
This briefing uses three measures, each defined on the counting rules page: the bust drop (highest year of 2004–2006 to lowest year of 2007–2012), the year of the low, and the recovery (2021–2025 yearly average as a percentage of the 2004–2006 yearly average). All counts use the 2023 metro definitions in every year.
How deep the bust went
| Metro area | High, 2004–2006 | Low, 2007–2012 | Drop |
|---|---|---|---|
| Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI | 21,808 | 1,333 (2009) | 94% |
| Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL | 46,084 | 3,875 (2009) | 92% |
| Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA | 74,547 | 6,615 (2009) | 91% |
| Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA | 51,463 | 4,736 (2011) | 91% |
| Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN | 52,808 | 5,922 (2009) | 89% |
| Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA | 21,999 | 2,491 (2011) | 89% |
| Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL | 36,137 | 4,487 (2009) | 88% |
| Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ | 65,259 | 8,300 (2010) | 87% |
Among the large metro areas, Detroit, Miami, Atlanta, Riverside, Chicago all lost more than 88% of their yearly permits from the boom high to the bust low. The mildest falls, Buffalo (50%), Rochester, NY (52%), Omaha (53%), Tulsa (54%), show that the collapse was far from uniform.
When the bottom came
For 124 of the 387 metro areas the low year was 2009; for 136 it was 2011, and for 59 it was 2010. Nationally the low came in 2009, though 2010 and 2011 were barely higher.
Who built back past the boom
Of the 56 large metro areas, 11 authorized more units a year from 2021 to 2025 than in 2004–2006, led by Austin at 171%. Across all metro areas, 75 of 387 did. At the bottom of the table are Chicago (35%), Riverside (36%) and Las Vegas (39%); their bust drops were 89%, 91% and 87%.
The four regions
Adding up the states of each Census region shows where the national swing came from.
| Region | Units, 2005 | Units, 2009 | Drop | Units, 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northeast | 203,804 | 68,503 | 66% | 127,828 |
| Midwest | 353,896 | 100,344 | 72% | 210,636 |
| South | 1,039,044 | 297,404 | 71% | 771,200 |
| West | 558,572 | 116,712 | 79% | 321,952 |
After 2009 the national count rose 12 years in a row, to 1,736,982 in 2021, then eased each year to 1,431,616 in 2025. The South authorized 54% of all units in 2025, against 48% in 2005.
Houses and apartments through the cycle
The two halves of the market moved on different clocks. Single-family permits peaked in 2005 at 1,681,986 units and kept falling until 2011, when they reached 418,498, a decline of 75%. Units in buildings of five or more bottomed earlier, in 2009 at 121,125, and then climbed past their boom level: the 2022 count of 651,302 is the highest in the series. Single-family permits have not returned to their boom level; their best recent year, 2021, reached 66% of 2005.
That split explains much of the variety between metro areas. Places where new housing is mostly single-family took the full force of the single-family collapse, while places with a large apartment pipeline recovered sooner.
States with a recent record
The busiest permit year came after 2013 in 13 of the 50 states and DC: Colorado (2021), Delaware (2021), District of Columbia (2022), Idaho (2021), Montana (2021), Nebraska (2022), New York (2015), North Dakota (2014), South Dakota (2022), Tennessee (2021), Texas (2021), Utah (2021), Washington (2021). For the other states the record still dates from 2004–2007.
The strongest rebounds from the bottom
Measured from each large metro area's own low point, the biggest rebounds were in Orlando (6.1 times its 2009 low), Atlanta (6.1 times its 2009 low), Detroit (6.0 times its 2009 low), Phoenix (5.5 times its 2010 low), Miami (5.5 times its 2009 low). A large rebound can mean a strong recovery or simply a very deep bottom; read it next to the bust drop and the recovery figure above.
Twenty-two years in four stretches
Added up, the national record splits into clear phases: 8,368,070 units in the five years 2004–2008, only 3,632,114 in 2009–2013, 6,046,391 in 2014–2018, and 10,695,257 in the seven years 2019–2025. The lean five years after the bust produced well under half of what the five years before it did.
Record years then and now
For 256 metro areas the busiest year since 2004 still lies in 2004–2007. For 84, it falls in 2021 or later, the clearest sign of where the current building cycle is concentrated. Every area page marks its own record year on the chart.
A recovery figure above 100% does not mean a place has made up for the lean years: the units not authorized from 2008 to 2012 stay missing from the cumulative count. Each area page charts every year since 2004, and the Versus tool's index view (2004 = 100) shows the whole path for any two areas.
Sources
US Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey, annual county and state files 2004–2025; OMB metro area delineation of July 2023; US Census Bureau, Population Estimates, Vintage 2025. All figures computed by this site; see the counting rules.