Homebuilding Labor Shortages and Costs Continue to Rise

Labor shortages in the homebuilding industry are becoming more widespread, according to recent results from the September 2026 NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) survey.

The survey asked builders about shortages in 16 specific trades. The percentage of builders reporting a shortage (either serious or some) of labor they employ directly ranged from a low of 33% for excavators and building maintenance managers to a high of 58% for workers who perform finished carpentry.

The shortage percentages were generally up from the last time NAHB conducted the survey, in April of 2025. The shortage percentages for plumbers and HVAC workers were unchanged at 45% and 43%, respectively, but were up at least slightly for each of the other 14 listed trades. The three trades seeing the largest spikes in shortages are framing crews (up 9 percentage points to 57%), landscaping workers (up 7 pp to 39%) and roofers (up 6 pp to 36%). Averaged across the 9 trades NAHB has been covering in a consistent fashion since 1996, the shortage percentage was 47% in September 2026—up from 42% in April 2025.

At 47%, the current 9-trade shortage percentage is now higher than it had been at any time during the boom period of 2004-2006, when total housing starts were consistently over 1.8 million annually. In contrast, starts in August of 2026 came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of under 1.3 million.

After peaking during the COVID pandemic, the reported shortages of residential construction labor declined consistently between 2022 and 2025, before rising back up in the latest survey.

Along with the shortages, homebuilders also reported rising labor costs in the September HMI survey. The median increase in the cost of labor for the same home over the previous 12 months was 4.2%.