San Jose and its surrounding cities have taken the top spot in housing -- but the data is nothing to brag about.

The San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metro area took the No. 1 spot for the biggest decline in home building permits at 68% when comparing data from July 2020 and 2025, according to a recent report from New York-based HomeAbroad. Permits dropped from 1,949 to 623, the largest downturn compared to the nation's biggest metro areas in the same timeframes.

The Kansas City area ranked second with 2,014 permits in 2020 to 701 permits in 2025, Austin-Round Rock ranked third at 3,979 to 2,917, the Nashville area came in fourth at 3,144 to 2,099 and the Los Angeles area ranked fifth at 2,715 to 1,694.

The analysis examined U.S. Census Bureau building permits survey data for the top 100

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