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Solar permit statistics: U.S. residential installs by state
Scout Data's permit database shows 4,586,606 residential solar permits across 1,154 counties, of which 347,293 were issued in the past 12 months.
- Residential solar permitting peaked at 574,306 permits in 2023, then fell to 414,539 in 2024 and 382,393 in 2025.
- California led with 144,697 tracked residential solar permits in the past 12 months, versus 33,375 in Florida.
- The national median declared valuation on residential solar permits issued since January 2024 is $23,783.
What percentage of homes have solar? Rooftop counts by state
5.55% of U.S. single-family homes carry solar panels on the roof, seen from aerial imagery.
- California leads at 24.44%, roughly one single-family roof in four; Nevada (18.25%) and Arizona (15.30%) follow.
- California holds 39% of every single-family solar home in the country.
- San Diego County alone is at 42.0%.
How often does a home solar install include a battery?
Of 368,049 residential solar permits filed in 2025, 28.98% state that the job includes energy storage, against 0.13% in 2015.
- Measured at the home rather than the permit, the 2025 attachment figure is 31.6%.
- With California removed entirely the attach rate still runs from 9.7% in 2023 to 22.5% in 2025.
- 398,812 homes hold both a residential solar permit and a permit recording storage, out of 3,757,036 homes with a solar permit.
Solar permits that never got installed: one roof in five is bare
21.0% of single-family homes with a solar permit have no array visible on the roof today.
- On the 2018–2022 permit vintages, where imagery has caught up, the rate settles at 16.6%–17.8%, roughly one home in six.
- Homes whose solar permits all expired show no array 65.2% of the time, against 15.7% for homes with a completed permit.
Bankrupt solar installers: the full Scout Data list
102 residential solar installers are on the Scout Data bankrupt installer list; 29 are Chapter 7 liquidations and 8 are Chapter 11 cases.
- Freedom Forever filed for Chapter 11 on April 15, 2026 in the District of Delaware (case 26-10522) with more than $500 million in liabilities; the case was converted to a Chapter 7 liquidation on August 7, 2026.
- Those installers left behind 387,563 tracked residential solar permits.
- On the narrower basis of 38 companies with a confirmed filing date, 394,258 homes across 47 states were permitted before the installer went under.
Roof replacement statistics: what roofing permits show
Among homes with two or more observed roofing permits, the median interval between them is 14 years.
- The median U.S. home is 42 years old when a roofing permit is pulled.
- The national median declared valuation on residential roofing permits issued since January 2024 is $15,000.
What is the most common roofing material? U.S. roofs by state
Of U.S. single-family homes where the roof material is recorded, 77.4% carry asphalt or composition shingle.
- Metal is second at 6.3%, tile and concrete third at 5.4%.
- Nevada leads at 69.7% tile or concrete; Arizona follows at 37.1%, Washington 12.8%, Florida 11.4%.
- Wood shake fell from 7.0% of 1960s homes to 1.6% of 2020s homes, slate from 3.4% to 0.2%.
How often is a home HVAC system replaced?
Across homes with two or more permits for the same equipment, the median gap is 13 years for a furnace or boiler and 12 for air conditioning.
- The median home pulling an HVAC replacement permit is 39 years old, with a quarter under 24 and a quarter over 60.
- 14.4% of U.S. residential HVAC replacement permits in 2025 named a heat pump, mini-split or ductless system, up from 8.8% in 2016.
- Cooling replacements peak in July at 182,383 permits a month against a February trough of 110,433, a 65% swing.
How old are American homes?
The median U.S. single-family home was built in 1979, making it 47 years old in 2026, from build years on 79,636,129 single-family homes.
- 38,523,535 single-family homes, 48.4% of the dated stock, predate the 1978 federal ban on lead-based paint.
- New York has the oldest housing at a median build year of 1956, with 28.4% built before 1940.
- The 2000s added 11,099,247 single-family homes still standing; the 2010s added 5,829,263.
How long do people stay in their homes? Tenure by state
Reading the last recorded sale on every single-family home, the median owner-occupant has been in the same house for 9.8 years.
- Across 52.9 million owner-occupied single-family homes with a usable sale date, the mean tenure is 12.9 years.
- About a quarter have been in the same house 20 years or more; 4.4% arrived within the last twelve months.
- Half of all owner-occupants sit between 4.9 and 19.8 years in the home.
How many single-family homes do companies own?
Across 85,061,162 single-family homes, 5,353,183 (6.3%) are titled to a business entity rather than to a person.
- Among homes that changed hands since the start of 2021 the figure is 10.0%, and among homes last sold in 2026 it is 14.1%.
- 68.3% of company-owned single-family homes belong to entities owning fewer than ten.
- Only 0.33% of all U.S. single-family homes sit under an owner name holding a thousand or more.
Where are people moving? What the parcel data shows
Across 85,061,162 American single-family homes, 4,166,289 were built since 2020, and where they landed is very unevenly distributed.
- In Idaho 12.34% of standing single-family homes were built since 2020; St. Johns County, Florida leads at 25.04%.
- 3,665,576 single-family homes recorded a sale between August 2025 and August 2026, about 4.3% of the stock.
- Of 3,996,396 out-of-state owners only 308,465 are also owner-occupied.
Door knocking statistics: what 237,000 real knocks show
On real field days, someone answers at 37.0% of knocked doors; 63.0% reach nobody.
- The contact rate swings from 31.5% in the 9 a.m. hour to 46.2% in the 8 p.m. hour.
- Monday has the highest contact rate (38.1%) and Saturday the lowest (34.7%).
- Reps mark 5.8% of logged knocks "Appointment Set", one appointment per 17.2 doors.
Residential solar permits by state
The national solar permit series broken out by state: permits by year since 2015, the busiest counties, median declared project values, rooftop adoption and battery attach rates, on one cohort so the states compare. Published so far: California, Florida, Texas, Arizona, Colorado, New York, Oregon, Nevada, Massachusetts, Virginia, Hawaii, Maryland, Illinois, North Carolina, New Jersey, Connecticut, Minnesota, Washington, District of Columbia, New Mexico, Ohio, Michigan, Utah, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Montana, Missouri, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Louisiana, South Carolina, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma.