The average completion time of a single-family home was about 7.5 months in 2017, according to the Census Bureau’s 2017 Survey of Construction, which usually covers almost a month from authorization to start and another 6.5 months to finish. This figure remained unchanged from 2016, and rose from 7 months in 2015.
The time from authorization to completion can range from less than a month to 77 months, according to the Survey of Construction. Main variables include geographic location, metropolitan status, and whether the house is custom built or built for sale.
Among all the single-family houses completed in 2017, houses built for sale took the shortest time, 6.9 months from obtaining building permits to completion, while houses built by owners required the longest time, 12.3 months. Homes built by hired contractors normally needed around 9 months.
The average time from authorization to completion also varies across divisions. The division with the longest time was New England (10.4 months), followed by the Middle Atlantic (10.3 months), East South Central (9.4 months), East North Central (8.2 months) and Pacific (8.5 months) in 2017.