NAHB, October 23: slabs 73%, basements 16.4%, crawl spaces 9.7%
Of single-family homes started in 2025, 73% were built on a slab, the same as in 2024, NAHB found in the Census Survey of Construction. Full or partial basements fell 0.6 of a point to 16.4%. Crawl spaces rose 0.5 of a point to 9.7%.
The change is regional. In the East North Central division (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin) slabs passed basements and now hold just over half of new homes; basements are at 43.0%. NAHB points to the cost advantage of slabs. Basements still lead in New England (67.7%), West North Central (64.4%) and the Middle Atlantic (48.7%). Slabs are almost everything in West South Central (97.7%), the Pacific (86.0%) and the South Atlantic (85.7%). In the Mountain division crawl spaces reached 20%, the most since 2007, while in the Pacific they fell from 45% in 2012 to 12%.
Why a small contractor should care: these are new homes, but they become your remodels in a few years. Fewer new basements in the Midwest means basement finishing will keep coming mostly from older houses. More slab homes means more bathroom and kitchen jobs where moving a drain means cutting concrete. More crawl spaces in the Mountain states means more work under the floor.
What to do this week
- 01Ask the foundation type on the first call, before the site visit: slab, basement or crawl space. It changes how you plan any job that moves plumbing.
- 02On slab homes, put a separate line for opening and patching the slab when a drain moves, and write in the estimate what happens if you find something under it. The client then sees it before the job, not as a surprise later.
- 03If you finish basements in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan or Wisconsin, aim your marketing at older neighborhoods, where the basements are.
Where WorkTime CRM helps with this
On an estimate, basement finishing is one of the ten trades with a market check under the total: a coloured strip shows whether your number is inside the local range, and the client never sees it. If something turns up under the slab during the job, a change order from the project goes to the client to sign.
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