in Indiana during 2025
Before the First Wall
See how building permits for new homes changed in each state from 2015 to 2025.
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How to explore
Local permits record permission to build new, privately owned homes. They are an early sign of planned construction, but they do not show whether work started or a home was finished.
Start with Indiana
Read its 2025 total, change since 2015, building mix, and reported share.
Pick a year
Choose a column to see how many units were in one-unit and multi-unit buildings.
Compare states
Rank places by authorized units, multi-unit share, or change since 2015.
Open a county
Choose a county to see its building sizes and how much Census filled in when reports were missing.
- Housing unit
- One home within a building; a five-unit building contributes five housing units.
- Authorized by permit
- Approved for construction by a local permit office; it does not mean construction started or finished.
- Multi-unit building
- Here, any residential building with two or more housing units.
- Imputed
- Filled in by Census methods when a permit office did not report usable data.
Residential building permits · 2015–2025
Before the
first wall.
See how building permits for new homes changed in each state.
A permit records permission to build. It does not mean construction started or a home was finished. This page follows new, privately owned housing units authorized by permits.
01 · Choose
Choose a state or the District of Columbia
The first view follows one place across eleven final annual releases.
+10,593 authorized units
U.S. share in 2025: 36.3%
The remaining 6.6% was filled in by Census estimates.
02 · Pick a year
How permits changed in Indiana
Each column is one year. The dark section is one-unit buildings; the orange section is every building with two or more units. Choose a column to update the page.
Read the annual values as a table
| Year | Total units | One-unit | Multi-unit | Reported |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 18,483 | 12,646 | 5,837 | 94.2% |
| 2016 | 18,713 | 14,068 | 4,645 | 92.4% |
| 2017 | 21,664 | 16,075 | 5,589 | 94.1% |
| 2018 | 21,480 | 16,416 | 5,064 | 93.2% |
| 2019 | 22,309 | 16,308 | 6,001 | 95.8% |
| 2020 | 24,919 | 18,979 | 5,940 | 91.4% |
| 2021 | 29,860 | 22,225 | 7,635 | 94.9% |
| 2022 | 28,245 | 18,728 | 9,517 | 95.3% |
| 2023 | 27,055 | 17,046 | 10,009 | 94.3% |
| 2024 | 26,633 | 20,082 | 6,551 | 93.7% |
| 2025 | 29,076 | 19,877 | 9,199 | 93.4% |
Building size
What kind of buildings were authorized?
These four groups add to 29,076 housing units in Indiana during 2025. The categories describe units per building, not bedrooms or floor area.
One-unit buildings
19,877 units68.4% of the state total. One home in each building, attached or detached.
Two-unit buildings
506 units1.7% of the state total. Two homes in each building.
Three- or four-unit buildings
164 units0.6% of the state total. Three or four homes in each building.
Buildings with five or more units
8,529 units29.3% of the state total. Five or more homes in each building.
03 · Compare states
How states compare in 2025
Change the measure, then choose a state from the ranked list. Totals reflect state size as well as building activity; the multi-unit share compares each state's mix.
Indiana#14
of 51, ranked by authorized units.
04 · Open a county
Which counties led Indiana in 2025?
Each bar is one county record. The list shows the top 18 for the selected measure; choose one for its building mix and reported-versus-imputed split.
Selected county record
Marion County
1,342 housing units authorizedOne-unit1,041
Two-unit8
Three or four8
Five or more285
Reported1,342
Filled in by Census estimates0
Reported means the units appear in the source's reported-only columns. Census adds imputed values when permit offices do not report. Neither group shows whether construction began.
What to notice
Indiana authorized 29,076 housing units in 2025. 31.6% were in buildings with two or more units. That mix can move differently from the total, so a higher permit count does not always mean more one-unit homes.
Definitions, method, and limits
Housing unit
One home within a building. A five-unit building contributes five housing units.
Authorized by permit
A local office approved construction. The count does not show starts, completions, sales, or occupancy.
Multi-unit building
Here, any residential building with two or more housing units.
Imputed
Filled in by Census methods when a permit office did not report usable data.
What is included
New, privately owned residential construction in places that issue permits. The page includes 50 states and the District of Columbia.
What is not proved
The data cannot establish housing supply, affordability, demand, construction speed, or why places differ.
Why this exists
The question
Following one state from its annual total into building size, a national comparison, and county records will make residential permits easier to interpret without confusing authorization with construction or completed homes.
What to try
Start with Indiana in 2025, choose a year, compare states by total, building mix, or change, and open a county record to see structure sizes and the reported-versus-imputed split.
Method and limits
About the data
I selected the U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey from the allowlisted Census provider. The survey publishes national, state, and local statistics for new, privately owned residential construction. Census describes the released tables as public-use data and asks users to cite the Bureau. Census Bureau works generally are not subject to U.S. copyright protection, while the page preserves the requested attribution.
I downloaded the final annual state ASCII files for 2015 through 2025 and the final 2025 county ASCII file on October 29, 2026. The source files contain estimates with imputation and separate reported-only columns for one-unit, two-unit, three- or four-unit, and five-or-more-unit buildings. A standard-library Python builder pins all 491,569 source bytes by file size and SHA-256, validates each schema and date, retains the 50 states and District of Columbia, and checks 561 state-year records and 3,029 county records. For every year, the state sums reproduce the published United States total. For 2025, county sums reproduce every state total. Repeated builds produced the same 332,664-byte browser snapshot with SHA-256 `f145a16caa36bf438959c901bc68bbd46008c7b996d8957179c0efad25745ff2`; the browser makes no runtime request.
The page counts housing units, not buildings. Multi-unit combines the source's two-unit, three- or four-unit, and five-or-more-unit categories. Change compares a state's final annual total with its 2015 total. Reported share divides the reported-only units by the estimate with imputation; the remainder is labeled as filled in by Census estimates. The Census Bureau says annual totals use reported annual data where available, sums of monthly reports and imputes for monthly offices, or annual imputation when needed. Beginning in 2023, its permit-office universe updates annually.
A permit records authorization, not a housing start, completion, sale, occupancy, or net addition to the housing supply. The survey covers places that issue permits; Census reports that less than one percent of privately owned housing units nationwide are built in areas without permit requirements, though that share varies by state and metro area. The records can contain reporting, coverage, processing, and imputation error. Counts do not establish affordability, demand, construction speed, quality, land use, population growth, or why places differ.
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What the data shows
- Across the 50 states and District of Columbia, permits authorized 1,431,616 housing units in 2025. 36.3% were in buildings with two or more units.
- Indiana authorized 29,076 housing units in 2025, up 10,593 or 57.3% from 2015. It ranked 14th by total and 10th by percentage change among the 51 places.
- Of Indiana's 2025 total, 9,199 units or 31.6% were in multi-unit buildings. Buildings with five or more units accounted for 8,529 units.
- Hamilton County had Indiana's largest 2025 county total at 4,146 authorized units. Tippecanoe County followed at 3,979, and 86.1% of its units were in multi-unit buildings.