Rating

Population Outpacing Housing

Scale56-100

Graded like school, from F (56) to A+ (100). Higher is better.

About This Ranking

Goal

Highlight places whose local housing market added people faster than homes from 2020 to 2025, so residents per home rose. This is past growth, not a forecast.

Sources

Data behind the rating

3 sources

U.S. Census Vintage 2025 County Population and Housing Unit Estimates

2020-2025 estimates; housing units released May 2026

Data: July 1 estimates of residents, residents of group quarters such as prisons and dormitories, and housing units for every county, 2020 to 2025.
What it tells us: Shows how fast residents of homes and the number of homes grew across the place's housing market. Census counts new homes mostly from building permits.

U.S. Census Building Permits Survey, permit offices

2020-2024 annual files

Data: The yearly list of local offices that issue residential building permits, with the residents each one covers, 2020 to 2024.
What it tells us: Measures how much of a market's building permits can see. Where few residents live under a permit office, Census estimates much of the new housing, so the score leans toward neutral.

U.S. Census 2023 CBSA Delineation: List 1

2023 delineation

Data: County-to-CBSA delineation workbook used to map places into broader metropolitan or micropolitan labor-market areas.
What it tells us: Determines which broad metro or micro area a place inherits; every matched place in the same CBSA receives the same market-level inputs.

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