Lincoln Housing Index
Home values, supply & demand for Nebraska's capital
Lincoln home values have risen in 39 of the last 43 years while the nation still hasn't built enough homes
Prices are still climbing, just more slowly. Builders remain below their long-run pace, the largest group of millennials is reaching first-time-buyer age, and listings are recovering without returning to pre-2020 levels.
Lincoln, NE metro
Lincoln's 43-Year Home Value Record
FHFA House Price Index on January 1 of each year, with the change from the prior January. Only four down years since 1983, and the worst was −4.4% in 2010.
Index: 1995 Q1 = 100. These are repeat-sale index values, not dollar prices; multiply by 1,000 to compare with the figures on older versions of this chart. Decade total runs Jan 1 of the decade's first year to Jan 1 of the next decade (1980s starts in 1983, the first full year of data; 2020s is through Jan 2026).
Lincoln has never had a housing crash. The 2008–2010 slide totaled under 5%, while values gained 56% from January 2020 to January 2026. Growth has cooled from the 17% spike in 2022 to about 2–3% now, which is close to the 43-year average of 3.8%.
United States · new construction
Single-Family Homes Completed Each Year
Builders finished an average of 1.01 million single-family homes a year from 1970 to 2025. They fell below that line in 2008 and have only cleared it twice since.
From 1970 to 2007, builders averaged 1.12 million single-family completions a year. From 2008 to 2025 they averaged 767,000. That difference adds up to about 6.4 million homes that were never built, and the 2026 pace has slipped back below 1 million.
Lincoln, NE metro · new construction
New Homes Permitted in the Lincoln Metro
Housing units authorized by building permits each year in Lancaster and Seward counties, which make up the Lincoln metro. Counts include single-family homes, townhomes and apartments.
City of Lincoln permits by month, 2026
Nebraska single-family permits, January–August
Nationally, builders have spent most of the years since 2008 below their long-run pace. The Lincoln metro fell just as hard in 2008–2009, but it was back above its long-run average by 2014 and has permitted about 2,500 units a year since 2021, 30% above its 36-year average. Single-family remains the core of the pipeline: 64% of new dwelling permits in the city through July 2026. Statewide, single-family permits through August are at their highest since 2021.
United States · demand
Births Underlying Each Generation
U.S. live births by year. The marked line is the birth year of a typical first-time buyer today (age 40, born 1986). The biggest millennial years, 1989–1993, are 33 to 37 years old now.
Millennials (born 1981–1996) number 62 million births, the second-largest cohort after the boomers. Their peak year, 1990, turns 40 in 2030. With the typical first-time buyer now 40, the largest wave of millennial buyers is still ahead, and Gen Z (65 million births) follows right behind.
United States · homes for sale
Supply of Homes for Sale Nationally
Active single-family and condo listings each month, July 2016 through September 2026. The dashed line is the September average for 2017–2019.
Inventory has recovered from the 2022 bottom and the national market is moving toward balance, so buyers have more choice and more room to negotiate than at any point since 2019. Listings are still below their pre-2020 level, and the construction gap above means that shortfall will be slow to close.