How Key NAHB Financial Growth Data Can Help Your Business

Statistics and data that can better inform the financial health of your company compared to U.S. builder and remodeler peers are uncovered in NAHB’s The Cost of Doing Business Study, 2025 Edition.

This unique resource highlights growth indicators — such as gross margins, net profits, cost of sales, and financial ratios — broken down by company size and builder type to help you apply this data to your business.

“It’s hard when you’re running a company and you’re in the middle of everything to really understand where it is you can make improvements to make more money and increase your net profit,” said Monica Wheaton, vice president of customer success at ECI Software Solutions during a recent Shop Talk.

“But when you step back and look at the numbers, you can start to hone in on, ‘Is it really the construction costs that I need to work on? Is it my operating costs that I want to focus on? How can I start to change my numbers to reflect either that top 25% or to kind of get more into that mid-range where I’m making a much better profit.’”

Wheaton was joined by Rose Quint, NAHB assistant vice president for survey research, and Alan Hanbury, Jr., CGR, CAPS, GMR, president of House of Hanbury Builders Inc., to discuss the intricacies of the study.

Top data revealed during the discussion included the latest builder’s profit margins:

• The average gross profit margin is 20.7% of revenue for all builders, 29.7% for the top 25% of builders and 17% for the bottom 25% of builders
• The average net profit (loss) margin is 8.7% of revenue for all builders, 17.7% for the top 25% of builders, and -1.4% of the bottom 25% of builders

The data also noted a drop in remodelers’ profit margins in recent years:

• In 2021, remodelers’ gross profit margin dropped to a low of 24.9% of revenue, 5.2% lower than in 2018.
• Remodelers’ net profit margin also dropped to 4.7% of revenue in 2021, the lowest average since 2011.
• The rising cost of trade contractors and single-family home building direct construction costs were big contributors to those lower margins.

Watch the Shop Talk Replay
(Member login required.)

The Cost of Doing Business Study, 2025 Edition is available at .

Learn more about the 2025 second quarter remodeling marketing sentiment dip in the recently released Remodeling Market Index (RMI).