Despite Slower Overall National Growth, Housing Stock Rapidly Expanded in the South and West from 2010 to 2020

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Growth Highest in Metro Areas

While the national number of housing units grew over the past decade, this growth was not uniform throughout the country (Figure 2). In addition to some states growing faster than others, growth rates also varied across counties in the same state.

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In many states, counties in metropolitan areas grew faster than those in nonmetropolitan areas. Counties that composed some part of a metropolitan or micropolitan area, also known as Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs), showed increases that averaged 3.8%, while counties outside of CBSAs declined on average by 3.9%.

This pattern extended to metro and micro areas as well. Counties located in central areas of CBSAs grew by nearly 4.9% on average, while those in outlying areas of the CBSAs grew by an average of only 1.2%.

This pattern helps to explain why more than half (50.7%) of counties showed declines in their total housing unit count when the national count grew by 6.7% between 2010 and 2020.

Even Texas, the state that added the most housing units, showed decreases in more than half (52.4%) of its counties — reflecting the concentration of housing unit growth in larger metropolitan counties, with declines more common in smaller non-metropolitan counties.

Only six states — Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island — had more housing units in 2020 than in 2010 in every one of their counties.

West Virginia and Puerto Rico, the only two areas that lost units overall, had the highest proportion (80%) of counties that lost housing units.

Where People Live

Changes in the number of housing units from 2010 to 2020 resulted from macroeconomic changes and other factors that affect where people live and build homes.

The decennial census is the most accurate and effective source of information for capturing these shifts, especially for smaller geographies and historically harder-to-reach populations.

The 2020 Census housing unit counts also provide the foundation for the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey and the American Housing Survey, which will provide additional details about the U.S. housing stock and the shifts that develop over the next decade.

Evan Brassell is chief of the Census Bureau’s Housing Statistics Branch in the Social, Economic and Housing Statistics Division.

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