Madison permitted 321 new single-family homes from January through September, up from 279 a year earlier, federal figures show. No apartments were permitted.
The city of Madison issued building permits for 321 new homes from January through September. That is 42 more than in the same months of 2025, a rise of about 15%.
Updated Oct. 31: This story now includes the Census Bureau’s September figures. It first ran with the January-through-August count of 296 homes.
Every one of them is a single-family house. No duplexes, townhouse blocks or apartment buildings were permitted in the city in the first nine months of the year.
The figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Building Permits Survey, which collects monthly counts from local permit offices. September is the latest month available.
September: 25 homes
Madison permitted 25 new houses in September, with a combined construction value of $15,923,205. In August the city permitted 26.
The busiest month this year was January, with 62. The quietest was May, with 18.
More houses, no apartments
The total number of new homes is lower than last year, even though house permits are up. That is because of one month in 2025.
In January 2025, the city permitted 264 units in buildings with five or more units. With those apartments, Madison authorized 543 homes from January through September 2025. This year there have been none of that kind.
How Madison compares
Here are the year-to-date counts for Madison and its two neighbors in the survey. Huntsville is about five miles east and Athens about 12 miles west.
| City | Single-family homes, Jan.-Sept. 2025 | Single-family homes, Jan.-Sept. 2026 | Apartment units, Jan.-Sept. 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Madison | 279 | 321 | 0 |
| Huntsville | 746 | 957 | 239 |
| Athens | 315 | 404 | 0 |
Huntsville also permitted six units in duplexes this year. In September alone it permitted 185 apartment units in two buildings. The Athens figure for 2025 excludes two duplex units.
All three cities permitted more houses than a year ago. Athens, with fewer than half of Madison’s residents, permitted more new houses than Madison did.
The figures come from the bureau’s year-to-date files for September 2026 and September 2025, and its monthly file for September 2026.
What the construction values say
The 321 Madison permits carry a combined construction value of $128,019,271. That works out to about $399,000 a house.
That figure is the builder’s estimated cost of construction on the permit. It is not a sale price and it leaves out the land. For what homes are selling for, see our page on home prices in Madison.
What it means for you
- More new houses are on the way in Madison than at this point last year, all of them single-family.
- No new apartment buildings have been permitted in the city this year.
- A permit is an authorization, not a finished home. The survey counts a house when the permit is issued, not when building starts, and the bureau revises its figures in an annual file.
For how permits and rezonings work in the city, see our guide to building permits and zoning in Madison. Property records for new homes show up later on our real estate transfers page.
We will update this story when the bureau publishes the October figures.
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