Nearly 7% of Homes Are Torn Down Instead of Remodeled

Existing single-family homes in New England are more likely to be torn down than in any other region in the country, according to the latest Builder Practices Survey conducted by Home Innovation Research Labs and reported by the NAHB. There, 15% of the detached housing stock isn't remodeled, rather it's torn down and the lots used for new home construction.

Nationwide, 6.9% of existing single-family homes are torn down to make way for new construction. 

The reason for the high rate of replacement vs. remodel is that undeveloped lots are becoming scarcer and more expensive, so homeowners and builders see more value in the land than in the home. 

The data shows some geographic variations in where teardowns are most common. In three of the nine Census Divisions, more than one in ten new single-family homes were built on lots after an existing home was razed. Those three: New England (15%), the Pacific (13.2%), and the East South Central (10.1%). At the opposite end, only 4.8% of homes in the South Atlantic region were teardowns. 

Teardowns are most popular in these three regions due to very mature housing stock, limited land, or because geographical features limited the number of usable lots.