Where’s the Growth?

According to the Census Bureau’s Building Permit Survey, the top five states for permits for single-family homes in 2025, as measured in permits per 100,000 residents, were South Carolina (56), North Carolina (48), Florida (45), Idaho (45), and Delaware (43). At the bottom of the list were New York (4), Connecticut (5), Illinois (6), Rhode Island (6), and Massachusetts (6). Since my state of North Carolina had the second-fastest growth in single family-home permits per 100,000 residents, I thought I’d look deeper at the statistics in the state by county. As you might imagine, in most states, there is a wide variance between the counties with the fastest housing growth and the slowest. The following statistics for North Carolina are for total housing permits per 100,000 residents for 2023. The counties with the fastest new housing permits per 100,000 were Brunswick (254), Iredell (115), Warren (110), Pender (100), and Franklin (97). There were 8 counties with fewer than 10 new permits per 100,000 population, all in the eastern part of the state. Internet service providers that find themselves in the middle of housing booms should count themselves as lucky. It’s something that can disappear almost as quickly as it appeared, but taking advantage of growth is one of the easiest business plans.