Once the largest US housing market, Atlanta has experienced the largest decline in residential construction since the peak of the housing boom early in 2006. Homebuilders tried to increase their market share by using cheap credit and ignored signs of slowing sales growth. Phoenix, Riverside, Miami and Los Vegas made this list the same way. The other five cities made the list because of cutbacks stemming from the recession that followed the housing collapse. Housing construction is now higher than in early 2006 in more than forty small metro areas. Most of these cities sat out the credit-fueled housing boom.

The four largest cities in Texas dominate the list of the largest single family housing markets. The recession came late to Texas because of its large energy industry which continued to expand into 2009. Recession in the energy industry will persist well into 2010 so the Texas cities will slip down the list next year. But Houston, Dallas and Austin will stay on the list because Texas is still attracting immigrants and businesses. Hurricane rebuilding, military post and college towns dominate the list of the cities withy the most intense housing development. Only two resort cities remain on the list, neither of them in Florida.