According to the latest NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index survey, builders' most paramount concern for 2025 is sky-high interest rates. That's the same answer respondents gave in 2024, though at a much higher clip (91 percent in 2024 vs. 78 percent for 2025). 

In 2024, the next four most serious issues builders voiced concerns over were:

• Rising inflation in the U.S. economy (80 percent).
• Buyers expecting prices/interest rates to decline (77 percent).
• The cost/availability of developed lots (63 percent).
• The cost/availability of labor (61 percent).  

According to the survey, builders have similar concerns for the year ahead. One exception is the outlook on inflation, which 52 percent see as a serious problem in the year ahead (80 percent viewed inflation as a key threat in 2024).

While fewer builders are worried about the effects of "gridlock and Washington uncertainty" putting buyers off (60 percent in 2024 vs. 32 percent in 2025), material costs are a rising concern. Sixty-four percent of respondents cite "building material prices" as a key concern for 2025 (up from 57 percent in 2024.)

NAHB shares more context and historical perspective.

"The cost/availability of developed lots has been a serious challenge to most builders in nine of the 14 years of the series history. In 2022, 51 percent of builders faced this problem; by 2024, 63 percent did—tying a record high set in 2019. Meanwhile, more than half of builders have reported the cost/availability of labor as a serious problem for the past 11 years in a row. While 82 percent and 85 percent of builders faced this challenge in 2021 and 2022, respectively, the share has eased to 73 percent in 2023 and to 61 percent in 2024."