Construction and land loans, state by state. Banks of $10 billion and more cut theirs 15.8 %; 4,148 smaller banks grew theirs 4.1 %.

Banks of $10 billion and more cut 15.8 %. Banks under $10 billion grew 4.1 %.

A construction and land development loan pays for the dirt, the site work and the building before anyone lives or works in it. Every insured US bank reports the balance each quarter in its call report. The national total rose from $364.3 billion at the end of 2019 to $503.4 billion in December 2023 and has fallen to $458.9 billion, a cut of $44.5 billion.

Banks merge, and a bank that bought another books the seller’s loans as its own, so a simple total by size or by state moves when nothing was lent or repaid. We set each bank’s June 2026 book against the December 2023 book of the same bank plus every bank it has bought since, read from the FDIC merger history. 48 banks with $756 million at the peak closed or left no successor in the data; they are outside the comparison.

On that footing the cut is a large-bank story. The 32 banks of $100 billion and more went from $157.7 billion к $133.7 billion, −15.2 %. 133 banks of $10 к $100 billion went from $165.3 billion к $138.2 billion, −16.4 %. 4,148 banks under $10 billion went from $179.7 billion к $187.0 billion, +4.1 %.

Tap a group below to see how many of its banks cut and how many grew, and how its troubled loans moved.

It is not that every large bank left. Of the 32 largest, 20 cut their book since December 2023 and 8 grew it; of the 133 mid-size banks, 82 cut and 38 grew. Among the banks under $10 billion the count runs the other way: 1,577 cut and 2,236 grew.

The banks under $10 billion, the community banks, now carry 41 % of the national book, up from 36 % at the peak. Construction and land is 7.5 % of their loans against 1.5 % at the largest banks, so the same dollar of risk weighs about five times as much on their balance sheet. How we sorted the banks

32 of 51 states are down since the end of 2023. Among the larger ones, Oregon cut most and New Hampshire grew most.

Here we read the banks under $100 billion of assets by the state of their head office: 4,272 banks in the 50 states and the District of Columbia holding $324.6 billion of construction and land loans in June 2026. The 32 largest banks are left out, because a national bank books loans from every state at one head office. The totals are the same merger-adjusted books as in Part 1, so a bank that bought a bank in another state carries that book home.

Since December 2023 the book is down in 32 of 51. Among the 43 states with $1 billion or more, 30 are down. The deepest cuts among those: Oregon −33.8 %, Maryland −20.5 %, North Dakota −20.3 %, California −19.2 %, New Jersey −18.6 %, Tennessee −18.3 %. The largest gains: New Hampshire +30.8 %, New York +22.1 %, Kentucky +10.9 %, Georgia +9.4 %, North Carolina +8.8 %, Ohio +8.6 %.

Over the last 12 months the count is closer: 26 of 51 are down, 23 of the 43 states with $1 billion or more. Oregon −27.4 % and Maryland −24.0 % are still falling fastest; Georgia +15.1 %, North Carolina +13.2 % and New Hampshire +13.2 % are growing fastest among the larger states.

Switch the views to rank the states by change, by size of book, by its weight in their loans and by the share of their banks that cut. Tap a state for its numbers.

Size of book is a different ranking. Texas banks hold $35.6 billion, then Arkansas $20.0 billion, Missouri $16.1 billion and New York $15.7 billion. Weight is another: construction and land is 14.8 % of loans at Arkansas banks, 11.4 % in the District of Columbia and 11.3 % in Idaho, against 2.1 % in Delaware and Nevada.

The extremes of the full list are small books. Nevada’s banks grew +202.0 % from $164 million; Rhode Island’s cut 32.8 % from $629 million. That is why the rankings in the text use the 43 states with $1 billion or more; the chart shows all 51. What a state total does and does not say

The book turned up in June 2026. The troubled share is 2.6 times its low.

The chart follows the national book for 27 quarters, December 2019 to June 2026. It climbed through 2021 and 2022, adding $64.7 billion in 2022 alone, and peaked at $503.4 billion in December. It then fell for nine quarters in a row. In June 2026 it rose +0.1 %, из $458.4 billion к $458.9 billion. One quarter is not a turn.

Most of the cut, $41.5 billion of $44.5 billion, is in commercial building and land. Loans for one-to-four family houses peaked earlier, at $105.0 billion in March 2023, and are at $91.3 billion. All other construction and land, the apartments, offices, warehouses and lots, went from $403.6 billion in December 2023 to $362.1 billion.

The cost is rising while the book shrinks. Loans nonaccrual or 90 days or more past due were 0.37 % of the book at the low, 0.50 % at the peak and 0.98 % in June 2026, $4.5 billion. Pick a view, then tap a quarter.

The concentration line moved too. Banks whose construction and land book is at or above their tier one capital numbered 483 in December 2023, 376 in June 2025 and 344 in June 2026. Almost all are banks under $10 billion. Why tier one capital

What it means for a lender or a sponsor. Part of the money has moved rather than left: the large banks hold less construction and land, the community banks hold more, and the community banks are local. A developer in Oregon or Maryland meets a smaller book than at the end of 2023; one in Georgia or North Carolina meets a growing one. For the lender, the troubled share is rising on a book that is a far larger part of a community bank’s loans than of a large bank’s, so the check of a loan is the check of the bank.

Что с этим делать

If you lend on construction or land: read the market by who is lending in it, not by the national total. The national book fell 8.8 %; in your state and in your size of bank it may have grown, or fallen by a third.

Реалист reads the credit file of a construction loan, the budget, draw schedule, appraisal, guarantees and the borrower’s other projects, and returns the issues and the questions for the borrower. The same check runs on the 200th file as on the first.