According to the National Association of Home Builders’ Home Building Geography Index (HBGI), residential construction is playing a larger role in rural and suburban markets. Among the seven HBGI categories, non-metro/micro counties recorded the highest concentration of residential construction employment.
NAHB’s analysis of county-level data shows that the industry’s employment footprint is particularly large in rural and smaller-market counties, where home building accounts for a greater share of total employment than it does nationally. Large metro core counties are showing relatively lower employment concentration due to their more diversified economies, which are less dependent on home building activity.
