Montgomery County permits for new homes fell 10.4% in 2025, to 2,231 units, as single-family permits dropped 34.8%

Wed, 07 Oct 2026 08:41:29 -0400

Building permits issued in Montgomery County in 2025 covered 2,231 new housing units, 259 fewer than the 2,490 in 2024, a drop of 10.4%, according to the Census Bureau’s Building Permits Survey. Within that total, permits for single-family houses, which in the survey include attached houses such as rowhomes and twins as well as detached houses, fell 34.8% to 1,223 units. Units in buildings of five or more apartments rose 83.5% to 993.

The Census Bureau compiles the survey from reports by local permit offices. FRED, the St. Louis Fed’s data service, last updated the county series on May 28, 2026. The 2025 total was the fourth highest since 2008 and above the 2015 to 2024 average of 1,941 units. It was below every year from 1990 through 2007, when the county never fell under 2,282.

New housing units permitted in Montgomery County fell in 2025 after a 2024 high

New private housing units authorized by building permits, Montgomery County, Pa., each year, 1990 to 2025

Annual totals, not seasonally adjusted. Source: fred.stlouisfed.org

Houses and apartments

The county’s single-family count has moved between about 930 and 1,970 units a year since 2015. It reached 1,972 in 2022, fell to 1,269 in 2023, rose to 1,877 in 2024 and dropped back to 1,223 in 2025. The ten years from 2015 to 2024 averaged 1,247 single-family units, so 2025 sat slightly below the average.

Each apartment permit covers many units. The 993 units in buildings of five or more units in 2025 came from 13 buildings, about 76 units per building on average. In 2022 the county had 129 such units in 13 buildings. Buildings of two to four units added 15 units in 2025, down from 72 in 2024.

The survey also records the construction value written on each permit. For single-family houses in the county, that value averaged $400,823 per unit in 2025, up from $356,060 in 2024 and $208,294 in 2015. The Census Bureau cautions that permit valuations “may frequently differ from the true cost of construction,” so treat the figure as a rough marker of what builders reported.

Permits by township

The municipal files show where the permits were issued. Conshohocken Borough recorded 171 new units in 2025, more than in the previous ten years combined. Most of them were in one building of 168 units with a listed value of $21 million. The borough’s other three permits were for single-family houses.

New housing units authorized by building permits in Conshohocken and five nearby municipalities. Units in larger buildings counts buildings of two or more units.
Municipality	Single-family 2025	Units in larger buildings 2025	Total 2025	Total 2024	Total 2015 to 2025
Conshohocken	3	168	171	11	276
West Conshohocken	1	0	1	1	41
Plymouth	11	0	11	28	208
Whitemarsh	35	0	35	74	696
Upper Merion	266	0	266	279	4,043
Lower Merion	12	430	442	236	2,244

Source: www2.census.gov

West Conshohocken recorded one single-family house in 2025, as in 2024. Plymouth Township recorded 11 houses, down from 28, and Whitemarsh 35, down from 74. Lower Merion had 442 units, nearly all of them in one 426-unit building, along with 12 houses and one four-unit building. Upper Merion’s 266 single-family units were the largest single-family count among these six municipalities, but the file shows the township reported no months of data in 2024 or 2025, so its figures for those years are Census Bureau estimates.

What this means for a remodel or addition

The survey counts new housing units only. Permits for additions, alterations and repairs to existing houses, which make up most of the work this site covers, are outside it. The count still gives a sense of the load on a municipal office, because the same office that reviews a new apartment building or a subdivision also reviews your addition or kitchen.

When you apply, ask the permit office how long plan review is taking and how far ahead inspections are being booked. Plymouth Township’s Code Enforcement Department, for example, asks for 48 hours’ notice for every inspection. Build those waits into the schedule you agree on, and write into the contract who applies for the permit and who calls for each inspection. The permits guide lists the office, phone number and hours for Conshohocken, West Conshohocken, Plymouth and Whitemarsh. The contractor hiring guide covers what Pennsylvania law requires a home improvement contract to say.

The construction market behind these numbers, including what builders are putting up and why, is covered at Conshy Contracting.

Caveats

The Census Bureau describes the annual county and place figures as final estimates, compiled after it collects the monthly reports and sends annual forms to offices with missing months. They are annual totals and are not seasonally adjusted.

Not every figure comes straight from a permit office. Where an office does not report, the Census Bureau fills in an estimate from that office’s earlier years and from offices that did report. In the 2025 county file, 714 of the 1,223 single-family units appear in the columns for reported data. Upper Merion’s estimate is the largest single example among the municipalities in the table.

The county total on FRED matches the sum of the Census county file for every year from 2015 to 2025 except 2022, when FRED shows 2,149 units and the county file 2,138. The breakdown by building type in this article uses the county file.

A permit authorizes construction. The survey does not show whether or when each unit was built. Small boroughs such as Conshohocken and West Conshohocken can swing widely from year to year, since one apartment building can outnumber a decade of house permits.

Building permits | Conshy Contractor

Montgomery County permits for new homes fell 10.4% in 2025, to 2,231 units, as single-family permits dropped 34.8%

Houses and apartments

Permits by township

What this means for a remodel or addition

Caveats