Market rankings · Real estate
Top markets for home inspectors
Every U.S. metro area, small-town market and county, ranked by the Groundwork market score for home inspectors. The score weighs household spending per business, households per business, population growth and spending power.
- Listings in the U.S.
- 8,200
- 286 chain locations (3%)
- Official establishments
- 7,496
- +6.5% since 2019
- Household spending a year
- $2.2T
- On rent and homeowner costs
- Listings per 10k households
- 0.6
A site report maps the home inspectors on map listings around the address by name and distance, and the spending within reach.
Free10 actions over 3 days, no cardSurvey estimates 2020–2024 · population estimates 2025 · official business counts 2023 · map listings September 2026 · Data credits · How we measure
What this means
As of September 2026, map listings count 8,200 home inspectors in the U.S. 286 of them (3%) are chain locations. That is 0.6 per 10,000 households.
At $16,661 per household, households in the U.S. spend about $2.2T a year on rent and homeowner costs. That figure is all rent and homeowner costs, used as a measure of housing demand; it is not money home inspectors take in.
The official count of businesses with payroll classed as building inspection services in the U.S. was 7,496 in 2023, up 6.5% from 2019. They employ 28,755 people, with $1.7B in annual payroll.
The Stockton-Lodi, CA metro area has the highest market score for home inspectors among 243 scored metro areas, at 85. In the 10 highest-scoring metro areas, the median housing spending per business is 74% above the U.S. figure, and the median rate of listings per household is 33% below the U.S. rate.
Top markets
These tables (CSV)Ranked by the Groundwork market score, which weighs household spending per competitor, households per business with payroll, population growth and spending power against every other market of the same kind. How the score works.
Top metro areas of 1 million people or more
| Market | Score | Listings | Per 10k households | Housing spending per listing (U.S. = 100) | Population growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH | 82 | 94 | 0.5 | 168 | +2.3% |
| 4San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | 81 | 16 | 0.2 | 391 | −0.6% |
| 10Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | 78 | 114 | 0.5 | 151 | +3.3% |
| 12Richmond, VA | 77 | 18 | 0.3 | 183 | +5.5% |
| 15San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA | 75 | 48 | 0.3 | 313 | −2.4% |
| 16Urban Honolulu, HI | 75 | 11 | 0.3 | 238 | −2.3% |
| 22Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD | 72 | 118 | 0.5 | 152 | +1.4% |
| 24Fresno, CA | 71 | 11 | 0.3 | 225 | +3.2% |
| 26New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ | 71 | 444 | 0.6 | 128 | +0.6% |
| 28Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | 70 | 98 | 0.6 | 133 | +3.3% |
| 30Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT | 69 | 28 | 0.6 | 124 | +3.0% |
| 32Memphis, TN-MS-AR | 68 | 18 | 0.3 | 162 | −0.3% |
| 34Indianapolis-Carmel-Greenwood, IN | 68 | 36 | 0.4 | 130 | +5.4% |
| 37Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ | 67 | 110 | 0.6 | 123 | +7.3% |
| 38Providence-Warwick, RI-MA | 66 | 22 | 0.3 | 219 | +2.1% |
Top 50 metro areas
Too few small-town markets have 5 or more home inspectors on map listings to rank them against each other.
Top 25 counties
| Market | Score | Listings | Per 10k households | Housing spending per listing (U.S. = 100) | Population growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1Norfolk County, MA | 86 | 9 | 0.3 | 270 | +2.2% |
| 2Union County, NJ | 85 | 10 | 0.5 | 160 | +5.0% |
| 3Hudson County, NJ | 83 | 9 | 0.3 | 251 | +1.8% |
| 4San Joaquin County, CA | 83 | 9 | 0.4 | 198 | +5.5% |
| 5Middlesex County, MA | 83 | 31 | 0.5 | 175 | +2.8% |
| 6Plymouth County, MA | 83 | 11 | 0.5 | 148 | +3.5% |
| 7Santa Clara County, CA | 82 | 16 | 0.2 | 380 | −0.9% |
| 8Greater Bridgeport Planning Region, CT | 82 | 5 | 0.4 | 180 | +4.1% |
| 9Western Connecticut Planning Region, CT | 82 | 16 | 0.7 | 126 | +3.5% |
| 10Morris County, NJ | 81 | 14 | 0.7 | 121 | +3.2% |
| 11New York County, NY | 80 | 12 | 0.2 | 518 | −1.3% |
| 12Davis County, UT | 80 | 7 | 0.6 | 128 | +4.8% |
| 13San Francisco County, CA | 79 | 9 | 0.2 | 350 | −5.6% |
| 14Mercer County, NJ | 79 | 8 | 0.6 | 139 | +3.3% |
| 15Essex County, NJ | 79 | 20 | 0.6 | 116 | +4.2% |
| 16Camden County, NJ | 78 | 6 | 0.3 | 242 | +2.4% |
| 17Worcester County, MA | 78 | 14 | 0.4 | 179 | +3.7% |
| 18Lehigh County, PA | 78 | 6 | 0.4 | 168 | +2.7% |
| 19Fairfax County, VA | 78 | 20 | 0.5 | 162 | +1.7% |
| 20Suffolk County, MA | 77 | 12 | 0.4 | 205 | +0.1% |
| 21Berks County, PA | 77 | 7 | 0.4 | 159 | +2.7% |
| 22Naugatuck Valley Planning Region, CT | 77 | 10 | 0.6 | 129 | +3.2% |
| 23Southeastern Connecticut Planning Region, CT | 76 | 5 | 0.4 | 164 | +2.0% |
| 24Dauphin County, PA | 76 | 5 | 0.4 | 164 | +2.3% |
| 25King County, WA | 76 | 60 | 0.6 | 131 | +3.1% |
Scored: 243 metro areas, 0 small-town markets and 415 counties, each with at least 5 home inspectors on map listings (counties: 10,000 people or more). Housing spending per listing is all rent and homeowner costs over the listings, as an index where 100 is the U.S. Each market has its own page, reached from its state below.
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Every market in one Excel file
Home inspectors figures for all 387 metro areas, 538 small-town markets, 3,144 counties and 51 states: the Groundwork market score and rank, map listings and chains, household spending, businesses with payroll, employees and payroll, one-person businesses, SBA-backed loans, population, income and home value, each linked to its page. Sorted, filterable and ready to screen.
Home inspectors by state
Every market in each state ranked, with the state’s highest-scoring metro area.
- AlabamaTop metro area: Huntsville metro area · 69
- AlaskaTop metro area: Anchorage metro area · 61
- ArizonaTop metro area: Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler metro area · 67
- ArkansasTop metro area: Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway metro area · 50
- CaliforniaTop metro area: Stockton-Lodi metro area · 85
- ColoradoTop metro area: Boulder metro area · 61
- ConnecticutTop metro area: Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury metro area · 83
- DelawareNo scored metro area
- District of ColumbiaTop metro area: Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metro area · 78
- FloridaTop metro area: Sebastian-Vero Beach-West Vero Corridor metro area · 46
- GeorgiaTop metro area: Athens-Clarke County metro area · 59
- HawaiiTop metro area: Urban Honolulu metro area · 75
- IdahoTop metro area: Boise City metro area · 65
- IllinoisTop metro area: Rockford metro area · 52
- IndianaTop metro area: Indianapolis-Carmel-Greenwood metro area · 68
- IowaTop metro area: Davenport-Moline-Rock Island metro area · 61
- KansasTop metro area: Wichita metro area · 51
- KentuckyTop metro area: Louisville/Jefferson County metro area · 46
- LouisianaTop metro area: Slidell-Mandeville-Covington metro area · 51
- MaineTop metro area: Portland-South Portland metro area · 61
- MarylandTop metro area: Hagerstown-Martinsburg metro area · 65
- MassachusettsTop metro area: Boston-Cambridge-Newton metro area · 82
- MichiganTop metro area: Ann Arbor metro area · 65
- MinnesotaTop metro area: Rochester metro area · 58
- MississippiTop metro area: Jackson metro area · 59
- MissouriTop metro area: Kansas City metro area · 49
- MontanaTop metro area: Billings metro area · 38
- NebraskaTop metro area: Omaha metro area · 61
- NevadaTop metro area: Reno metro area · 64
- New HampshireTop metro area: Manchester-Nashua metro area · 63
- New JerseyTop metro area: Trenton-Princeton metro area · 79
- New MexicoTop metro area: Albuquerque metro area · 61
- New YorkTop metro area: New York-Newark-Jersey City metro area · 71
- North CarolinaTop metro area: Durham-Chapel Hill metro area · 79
- North DakotaTop metro area: Fargo metro area · 51
- OhioTop metro area: Toledo metro area · 55
- OklahomaTop metro area: Tulsa metro area · 59
- OregonTop metro area: Salem metro area · 63
- PennsylvaniaTop metro area: Harrisburg-Carlisle metro area · 81
- Rhode IslandTop metro area: Providence-Warwick metro area · 66
- South CarolinaTop metro area: Spartanburg metro area · 77
- South DakotaTop metro area: Sioux Falls metro area · 55
- TennesseeTop metro area: Memphis metro area · 68
- TexasTop metro area: McAllen-Edinburg-Mission metro area · 67
- UtahTop metro area: Provo-Orem-Lehi metro area · 75
- VermontTop metro area: Burlington-South Burlington metro area · 61
- VirginiaTop metro area: Richmond metro area · 77
- WashingtonTop metro area: Bremerton-Silverdale-Port Orchard metro area · 74
- West VirginiaTop metro area: Huntington-Ashland metro area · 54
- WisconsinTop metro area: Madison metro area · 65
- WyomingNo scored metro area
Related business types
- Real estate496,973 listings
- Real estate agents and brokers394,854 listings
- Property management38,749 listings
- Mortgage brokers and lenders55,169 listings
Questions
Which metro areas have the highest market score for home inspectors?
The top 5 are Stockton-Lodi, CA (85); Bridgeport-Stamford-Danbury, CT (83); Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH (82); San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA (81); and Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA (81). The score compares each of 243 scored metro areas with the others for home inspectors.
How many home inspectors are in the U.S.?
The U.S. has 8,200 home inspectors on map listings as of September 2026. 286 of them (3%) are chain locations. The listings count home inspectors. Official counts show 7,496 businesses with payroll classed as building inspection services in 2023, up 6.5% from 2019.
How much do U.S. households spend on rent and homeowner costs?
About $2.2T a year, or $16,661 per household. For the 8,200 home inspectors on map listings, housing spending per business is in line with the U.S. figure. The spending figure is all rent and homeowner costs, a measure of housing demand, not money home inspectors take in. It is estimated from the incomes of the 129,209,336 households in the U.S. and national spending patterns by income.
What is the Groundwork market score?
The Groundwork market score runs from 0 to 100 and compares a market with others of its kind for one business type: states with states, metro areas with metro areas, small-town markets and counties with their own. It weighs household spending per competitor (35%), households per business with payroll (25%), population growth (20%) and spending power (20%), each ranked against those peers. A higher score means that, taken together, the market has more household spending and more households for each business already there, faster population growth and more spending per household than similar markets. It describes a market, not any one site or deal. Markets with fewer than 5 map listings of the type, and counties under 10,000 people, aren’t scored, since a few businesses can swing their figures.
How can I see the market around a specific site?
Run a Groundwork site report on an address anywhere in the U.S. It maps the home inspectors on map listings near the site and sizes the households and spending within the distance you choose. New accounts get 10 actions over 3 days, no card.
All business types and every U.S. market · How we measure
Screening a site or an acquisition?
A site report maps the competitors on map listings near an address and sizes the households and spending around it.
This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.
Figures are estimates for research only. Not investment or real estate advice.