Statistics
Crawl space statistics
How many homes sit on a crawl space, where they are, and what owners report about leaks and cracks.
Written by HyreFoundation Research Desk Primary-source research and fact checking
The finding
Crawl space statistics from two Census Bureau surveys: about 19.4% of occupied single-family and manufactured homes in the U.S. sit on a crawl space, roughly 19.5 million homes in the 2023 American Housing Survey.
But new houses rarely get one now: only 9% of single-family houses completed in 2025 had a crawl space, down from 26% in 1971.
Crawl spaces are concentrated in East South Central (36.5% of homes) and Pacific (33.4%). In 2023, 8% of crawl-space households reported water leaking in from outside in the past 12 months, and 6.1% reported holes, open cracks or crumbling in the foundation.
The headline numbers
How many new homes are built with a crawl space?
Few, and fewer each decade. Nationally the count peaked at 273 thousand houses in 1972; in 2025 it was 91 thousand, 9% of completions. The South still builds the most crawl-space houses by count because it builds the most houses.
| Region | Crawl space 1971 | Crawl space 2000 | Crawl space 2025 | Crawl-space houses 2025 (thousands) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 26% | 17% | 9% | 91 |
| Northeast | 9% | 4% | 7% | 5 |
| Midwest | 14% | 8% | 7% | 10 |
| South | 38% | 21% | 8% | 46 |
| West | 23% | 23% | 14% | 31 |
Do crawl space homes have more water and foundation problems?
Crawl-space homes report foundation defects a little more often and outside leaks less often than basement homes; the gaps are small enough that sampling error matters.
6.1% of crawl-space households reported holes, open cracks or crumbling in the foundation, against 4.4% on slabs and 5.2% with basements. Outside water leaks were 8%, between slabs (6.2%) and basements (12.2%). These are household reports, not inspections.
| Foundation | Water leaked in from outside, last 12 months | Foundation holes, open cracks or crumbling | Sample homes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basement | 12.2% | 5.2% | 11,788 |
| Crawl space | 8% | 6.1% | 5,955 |
| Concrete slab | 6.2% | 4.4% | 13,111 |
| Manufactured home | 11.5% | 3.1% | 1,908 |
What this means for a crawl space owner
About 19,528 thousand homes depend on a crawl space, and most were built decades ago. Age matters: wood posts, beams and vapor barriers wear out, and the AHS question about foundation cracks picks up some of that wear.
The AHS leak question asks where outside water came in (roof, basement, walls or windows). It has no separate crawl space option, so a wet crawl space may go unreported. Treat the leak rate as a floor.
For the fixes, see crawl space repair, crawl space encapsulation and encapsulated vs vented crawl spaces. If floors are sagging fast or a beam has cracked, have a licensed structural engineer inspect before any repair.
Method
Census Bureau Characteristics of New Housing, "Type of Foundation in New Single-Family Houses Completed" (foundation_cust.xls, sheet SFTotalFoundation), retrieved October 27, 2026. Shares are the Census figures.
2023 American Housing Survey national PUF v1.1, retrieved October 27, 2026. Occupied units with FOUNDTYPE reported, weighted with WEIGHT. Crawl space is FOUNDTYPE code 3.
Leak share uses LEAKO (water leaked in from outside in the last 12 months); crack share uses FNDCRUMB (holes, open cracks or crumbling in the foundation). Households that did not answer are excluded from each rate.
Sample survey estimates with sampling error; we do not publish rates resting on fewer than 100 sample homes. Answers are what households report, not inspection findings. AHS does not ask foundation type of apartment buildings.
How to cite or embed this data
You may reuse the figures and the CSV with attribution (CC BY 4.0). Link back to this page so readers can see the method.
Citation: HyreFoundation Research Desk. (2026). Crawl space statistics. HyreFoundation. Data from Census Bureau Characteristics of New Housing and the 2023 American Housing Survey, retrieved October 27, 2026. https://hyrefoundation.com/statistics/crawl-space/
Embed snippet (paste under your chart or table):<p>Source: <a href="https://hyrefoundation.com/statistics/crawl-space/">Crawl space statistics</a>, HyreFoundation analysis of Census Bureau Characteristics of New Housing and the 2023 American Housing Survey (retrieved October 27, 2026).</p>
Dataset: /research/crawl-space.csv, built from the public source named above. Recompute it from the source if you need a later cut.
Questions
What percentage of homes have a crawl space?
Are new homes still built with crawl spaces?
Which part of the country has the most crawl spaces?
Do crawl spaces leak more than basements?
Can I download the data?
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HyreFoundation Research Desk
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