Story By Nathan Drew, Broker/Owner of Drew Realty | November 2026
Most school mornings, I get five minutes in the car with #TheDrewGirls. Five minutes to ask about their day, remind them to include others, and deliver the daily mantra I’ve been repeating since Veda started kindergarten.
It goes something like this:
Are you girls ready for a great day?
All in unison: Yes.
Who are you going to play with today?
Claire, Ashneer, Frances, everybody!
Are you going to include everybody?
Yes.
Are you going to focus on the task at hand?
Yes.
Are you going to be engaged?
Yes.
You’ve got to be engaged. Be present. Smile at people, look them in the eye, ask them how they’re doing and actually listen to their answer. You’ll know these people for the rest of your lives and relationships matter!
Like #TheDrewGirls being engaged in their lives at school, let’s engage with some new construction data for the 3rd quarter of 2026, and some year-to-date information.
A quick note: the Polk County Assessor is currently in the middle of a software conversion to their new site. I have not been able to obtain complete August and September lot-sales data from the Polk County Assessor’s website. Rather than publish an incomplete regional comparison, I’m leaving lot sales out of this quarter’s analysis. I plan to incorporate the missing sales into my year-end review once the records are available.
In the 3rd quarter of the last few years, I’ve looked at a breakdown of the residential inventory, for sale, on the market. In 2023, 43% of homes for sale were new construction. In 2024, it was 44%. Last year it dipped to 35%. As of 9/30/2026, only 31% of homes for sale are new construction. This is a smaller share of overall “for sale” inventory, though the percentage alone doesn’t tell us whether there are fewer new homes available or more resale listings competing with them.
Now, looking at the table, through the first nine months of 2026, new construction sales were essentially the same as a year earlier. Just an additional six sales.
Average home size increased by only three square feet.
Year-to-date average new construction sales price has risen by less than 1%.
Meanwhile, 3rd quarter, single family and townhome permits increased nearly 13%. On the surface, that suggests renewed construction activity. But 77 of the 86 additional permits were recorded in Norwalk alone. Excluding Norwalk, permit growth was just 1.4%. That makes this a concentrated increase, rather than evidence of a broad regional acceleration.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I got into real estate in 2008. Around that time, I remember my mentor, Kevin Crowley, telling me that real estate brokers tend to make money when the market is trending up, or when it is trending down, but it can be tough when the market is flat. Steady sales don’t necessarily make for an easy market. The number of transactions can hold level while individual businesses face very different results.
A few months ago, I read an article in The Wall Street Journal, “Real Estate Agents Are Quitting the Slow Housing Market”, that covered how the slowing housing market has caused many real estate agents to leave the industry or find second jobs. The slowdown is also affecting loan officers and other jobs directly tied to home sales. I’ve seen this trend locally on LinkedIn and Facebook. I’ve seen many good agents either change careers or take on a second job.
Before I drop the girls off, I always ask one final question: are you going to try your hardest? Yes.
That’s the part I keep coming back to. We don’t control the market, but we can stay engaged, keep learning, and adjust when something isn’t working. Sometimes we need to take a minute, recalibrate, and figure out the next step. I tell the girls that, but some mornings, I need the reminder too.
It’s going to be a great day, girls! Enjoy it
Nathan Drew, Broker/Owner of Drew Realty, a lot and development ground brokerage, has been in the business of lot and land acquisition and disposition since 2008. He keeps an ongoing inventory of all vacant lots and land throughout the Des Moines Metropolitan Area, and puts together a quarterly email blast with an interpretation of the metro’s lot market. Email Nathan to join his email blast list at Nathan@DrewRealtyUSA.com and follow him on Twitter @DrewRealtyUSA, on Facebook @DrewRealty, and on Instagram DrewRealty.