Hardware Retailing The Industry's Source for Insights and Information
Custom homebuilding increased in 2025, despite a more than 6% decline for overall single-family housing starts, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). The custom building market is less sensitive to the interest rate cycle than other forms of homebuilding but is more sensitive to changes in household wealth and stock prices. With spec homebuilding down and the stock market up, custom building expanded its market share.
There were 45,000 total custom building starts during the fourth quarter of 2025, according to NAHB’s analysis of Census data from the Quarterly Starts and Completions by Purpose and Design survey. This number is down 4% relative to the fourth quarter of 2024.
For 2025 as a whole, custom single-family housing starts totaled 186,000 homes, up 3% from 2024. The current market share of custom homebuilding, based on a one-year moving average, is almost 20% of total single-family starts. This is down from a prior peak of 31.5% set during the second quarter of 2009 and the 21% peak at the beginning of 2023.
