Since 2022, high mortgage rates have been a significant challenge faced by the nation’s home builders. And it will be so again, according to the latest survey by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).
Some 65% of builders expect rates to be a problem this year. That’s a smaller share than the 84% who said high rates were their biggest headache this year, but it is still significant.
High rates were an issue for a negligible share of builders until 2022 when 66% listed them as their most important concern. In 2023, the percentage jumped to 90% and jumped again in 2024 to 91%. In 2025, it slipped to 84%.
Until 2021, relatively few builders reported problems with buyers expecting prices or interest rates to fall, but that share has been rising steadily for the past four years and reached a record high of 81% in 2025.
The next most serious problem builders faced last year was buyers who expected prices and/or interest rates to decline. Four out of five builders said buyers who waited on the sidelines waiting for rates to move was a major issue.
Builders faced other problems, too: 65% were concerned about employment/economic situation, 63% about the cost/availability of developed lots, and 62% about negative media reports making buyers cautious. And builders expect these challenges to persist with limited improvement in 2026.
Lot availability has been an issue for some time. In 2024 and 2025, the share reached 63%, matching the record high set in 2019.
Negative media reports were a significant problem for 63% of builders in 2011. But during the 2012–2021 period, the share consistently remained under 50%. From 2022 onward, however, most builders saw it as a serious challenge again.
