Page 18 - Builder Brief August 2024

CONSTRUCTION TRENDS
MOST COMMON SIDING MATERIAL FOR SINGLE-FAMILY HOMES BUT TEXAS BUCKS THE TREND
According to the annual data from the Census Bu- reau’s Survey of Construction (SOC), stucco was the most common principal siding material (26.8%) for new single-family homes started in 2023. Other common materials include:
Vinyl siding (25.6%),
Fiber cement siding (21.7%), and Brick or brick veneer (18.5%).
Small shares of single-family homes started last year had wood or wood products (5.1%) and stone, rock or other stone materials (1.2%) as the principal exterior wall material.
Since NAHB began tracking this data in 2000, the strongest trend has been the growing popularity in fiber cement siding. The share of fiber cement siding has increased by five percentage points in the last 10 years and is up by 14.2 percentage points in the past 20 years.
Another major trend is the decline of vinyl siding. Al- though it has remained steady in recent years, the share has dropped 5.3 percentage points in the last 10 years and 12.8 percentage points in the last 20 years.
Stucco has also been relatively flat in recent years but
has seen an overall incline since 2000. After a low in 2010 of 17.3%, its share has risen almost 10 percentage points in 2023.
The Census Bureau’s SOC data is available by the nine census divisions and there are substantial differences in the use of siding across divisions. Although stucco was the
most common siding material in the country as a whole, its popularity is concentrated in se- lect regions. In 2023, vinyl siding was the most widely used primary exterior material in four out of nine census divisions. Vinyl siding was used on 83.1% of the new homes started in New England, 67.4% in the East North Central, 65.3% in the Middle Atlantic, and 43.2% in the West North Central.
Stucco was the most used primary exterior wall material in the Pacific, Mountain and South Atlantic divisions in 2023 at 62.0%, 52.7% and 39.4%, respectively, of the new single-family homes started in those areas. Brick or brick veneer was the most common exterior siding material in the East and West South Central divisions. In the West South Central, 57.8% of the new single-family homes started in 2023 used brick or brick veneer as the primary ex- terior material, compared to 44.6% in the East South Central.
18 AUGUST 2024 | GREATER SAN ANTONIO BUILDERS ASSOCIATION