June Map of the Month

By  Laura Diaz-Villaquiran

The United States needs more housing. The Pew Charitable Trusts estimates that the nation needs between 4 and 7 million new homes to keep up with demand. This shortage has driven up home prices and made it more difficult for new buyers to enter the market. 

Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Building Permits Survey, this month’s map examines the rate of change in building permits issued for the construction of new housing units across the Southeast over the last five years to understand where residential building activity has been heating up. Counties in blue have experienced increases in residential construction activity, while counties in red have experienced declines in the number of permits pulled between 2018 and 2023.  

Not surprisingly, the region’s metropolitan areas have experienced the highest levels of growth, but not all metro areas have benefitted equally. Metropolitan areas and counties that are on the periphery of cities, particularly in Florida, have had some of the largest spikes in construction activity. This includes Polk County, Brevard County, Okaloosa County, and Pasco County. In most of these counties, the number of permits pulled in 2023 was more than double that in 2018.  

Other cities have also experienced substantial increases in residential construction activity, including Madison County, AL (Huntsville), Brunswick County, NC (Wilmington), and Iredell County, NC (Statesville). Counties in the Atlanta metro area—other than Gwinnett County—have had steady or declining building activity, a trend that is mirrored in cities like Birmingham and Memphis. 

Trends in residential construction are good indicators of economic investment and population growth in the region. Because new housing units must comply with the most recent building energy codes in most states, new construction can also make the housing stock more efficient through household-level reductions in energy consumption. It can also contribute to improved indoor air quality, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and reductions in overall electric load for utility providers, when paired with other policies and programs. These are long-term benefits, as new housing units today are expected to last at least a generation.  

Despite the benefits of new construction, a series of residential energy code field studies funded by the U.S. Department of Energy find gaps in compliance with established energy codes across the United States in the new housing stock. These studies underline that the cascading efficiency benefits of new housing will depend on ensuring that builders and code officials across the region have the resources needed to build to code, particularly in areas that are experiencing large spikes in construction activity. 

SEEA provides research, technical assistance, and other services to stakeholders throughout the South to close code compliance gaps. SEEA has carried out residential energy code field studies in Arkansas, Virginia, Georgia, and Tennessee, and has field studies ongoing in Georgia, South Carolina, and Louisiana. SEEA also provides technical assistance to builders and code officials across eight states through our Energy Code Circuit Rider Program. Finally, SEEA is carrying out research in Atlanta and Savannah to understand the impacts of historic disinvestment on building performance and support efforts to ensure that building policies are equitable and effective. Through each of these measures, we work to support the implementation of building energy codes to ensure that residents of new homes can take full advantage of the many benefits of energy efficiency.