Over 1,800,000 new single-family homes are expected to break ground in the U.S. between 2026 and 2027, according to the National Association of Home Builders’ 2026 Housing Outlook.
At the same time, severe and costly extreme weather events are only increasing in frequency. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recorded 27 extreme weather events leading to over one billion dollars in damages in 2024 — and that number has risen significantly over time, up from ten in 2014 and six in 2004, adjusted for inflation.
What this means is that the houses built today, and the buyers moving in, will face increasingly frequent and devastating extreme weather events over the course of the next several decades. Fortunately, building technologies have evolved as the climate has changed. Resilient building components are less expensive and more widely available than ever, and new developments mean that even a slight cost increase can prevent future callbacks or catastrophic failure.
A number of builders, architects and product manufacturers have already risen to this challenge, applying new technologies to home products and systems that have already shielded families from the worst. When you analyze their best practices, it comes down to this: A resilient home has to do five things well: resist, repel, control, drain, and conserve.
In 2025, when the Eaton Fire tore through Altadena, California, embers from one of the city’s thousands of destroyed homes flew onto a homeowner’s stone-coated steel roof.
While the embers scorched the roof’s stone granules, they did not catch on the steel underneath, according to a later case study from the roof’s manufacturer, Westlake Royal Building Products. This, combined with the stucco exterior and other fire-resistant materials, is believed to have saved the home and stopped the flames from spreading to neighboring houses.
Fire ratings developed by ASTM International (formerly the American Society for Testing and Materials) are the gold standard in determining a roof system’s ability to stand up to wildfires, with Class A being the best. The roofing in question—Westlake’s Unified Steel—carries a Class A fire resistance rating. It also boasts the highest level of impact resistance (Class 4) under the standards developed by Underwriters Laboratories (UL).
The roofing also has high wind resilience as part of a complete roof assembly, including fasteners and tie-downs, according to Wade Shepherd, senior business development manager at Westlake Royal Building Products. “Roof-covering fasteners help resist local uplift of tiles, panels, shingles, hips, ridges and perimeter components,” Shepherd says. “Structural tie-downs address the building load path by helping transfer wind forces from the roof framing into the walls and foundation. Both are essential to long-term weather resilience.” ASTM International standard ratings for wind resistance on roof shingles range from Class A up to Class H, which can resist wind forces of 150 or more miles per hour.
These developments in roofing for resistance to fire, impacts, and wind which made all the difference in the case of the Altadena wildfire are also benefitting other communities as the frequency and severity of natural disasters increase.
“I had the opportunity to visit Sarasota shortly after Hurricane Milton, [and] what stood out was how little damage I saw on many tile roofs,” Shepherd says. “In many cases, the visible damage appeared limited to accessory components rather than large-scale roof-cover loss. That observation reflects how much roofing codes, fastening practices and installation requirements have evolved since Hurricane Andrew in 1992.”
Even without the extremes of a wildfire, however, today’s roofing faces another heat-related obstacle — high surface temperatures over a long period of time.
Standard asphalt shingles have a heat tolerance between 180–200°F, or 82–93°C, after which they may soften, lose granules or rapidly age. Recent extreme temperature highs, 120°F or higher, can send roof temperatures up over 190°F for several days, causing potential permanent damage.
Cool roof systems can reduce a roof’s maximum surface temperature by up to 50°F under peak conditions, according to a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory study. This prevents the shingles from reaching dangerous temperatures and reduces the heat load on underlayments.
Depending on the climate, these systems could also reduce air conditioning costs by 10-15% for buyers and extend the lifespan of the roof by up to a decade.
The roof isn’t the only part of the home that needs to be able to stand up to a fire. Anything outside or surrounding the home could be a potential vector for combustion. There are many ways to mitigate the risk, however.
At the immediate exterior, fire-resistant siding materials can complement a resilient roof, including fiber cement, cultured stone veneer, brick or treated wood. “What science is showing us is that the exterior materials that are chosen is a really big deal,” said Michele Steinberg, wildfire division director at the National Fire Protection Association. “What we’re looking for is those noncombustible and ignition-resistant materials and preventing ember entry.”
Steinberg also notes a new body of research on the role of windows in preventing wildfire intrusion. “Having dual-paned or tempered glass is very important, but just as important is the assembly,” Steinberg said. This can include specifying metal frames for windows rather than wood frames.
However, she does caution against exterior fire sprinkler systems, which are sold as a means of preventing wildfire spread.
“There’s no research, no testing, no strong evidence that that is going to perform to some standard. There really is no standard,” Steinberg says. “I’m not saying that they couldn’t possibly work, or that it doesn’t have a benefit, but we don’t have evidence for that yet.”
In “Designing With Fire in Mind: Three Steps to a Safer New Home,” the NFPA outlines its Firewise Communities Program, a set of design principles that aim to provide simple and easy means to reduce a home’s wildfire risk. In some cases, these principles do not require buying specialty products. Instead, risk is mitigated by arranging standard offerings in a different manner.
Highlights include:
Air currents can bring dangerous air quality into homes thousands of miles apart, as was observed with the spread of wildfire smoke over the past summer. The 2025 edition of ASHRAE code 62.2 raised its minimum air filter level from MERV 6 to MERV 11, specifically to catch wildfire smoke particles.
Builders have a variety of strategies to choose from to keep their interior air quality high. Alair Asheville|Red Tree, Green Builder’s partner for VISION House Asheville, combines design considerations and whole-home filtering tech for its strategy.
“Healthy indoor air starts with a tight, well-sealed building envelope that prevents uncontrolled outdoor air from entering the home,” says Brandon Bryant, president and partner at Alair Asheville|Red Tree. “From there, we use energy recovery ventilation systems [ERVs] to continuously bring in fresh, filtered air while removing stale air. Together, these strategies create a balanced, controlled indoor environment throughout the home.”
ERVs consistently exchange stale air within the home for fresh air outside. For extreme situations, some of the industry’s newest offerings, including Panasonic’s IntelliBalance 210 ERV, include a recycling mode, which can be activated to cycle air within the home if conditions outside are too poor to risk bringing outside air in.
In addition, for filtration to be at its most effective, builders must also consider diffusion, the system of home vents through which air is managed. “If you can't control how air enters a home, you can't control what's coming with it. Everyday activities like cooking, showering, and cleaning also affect air quality, which is why balanced ventilation and proper air exchange are so important,” Bryant says.
Year-round, interior product choices can also go a long way toward maintaining consistent indoor air quality. When you make your product choices, be on the lookout for:
“We take a holistic approach by carefully selecting low-emission materials, including cabinetry, flooring, finishes, paints, stains, and adhesives,” Bryant explains. “We also encourage homeowners to consider furnishings and other products they bring into the home, since these can contribute to indoor off-gassing as well.”
When it comes to building durability, water doesn’t need to arrive as a flood to cause serious damage. Wind-driven rain, roof runoff, poor site drainage and water that finds its way behind exterior cladding can lead to rot, mold and deterioration if the home isn’t designed to move that water away from the structure.
The basic building-science principle is straightforward: Drain water away, keep it out of the building assembly and give anything that does get wet a way to dry.
That begins at the site. Finished grades should slope away from the foundation, while gutters, downspouts and other drainage strategies should move roof runoff well beyond the building perimeter rather than allowing it to collect against foundation walls.
Above grade, the exterior wall should be treated as a layered water-management system rather than relying on siding alone to keep the building dry. Cladding serves as the first line of defense against rain, but water that gets behind it must be directed back outside by a properly integrated water-resistive barrier, flashing and drainage plane. Roof-to-wall intersections, windows, doors and other penetrations deserve particular attention because they interrupt that drainage system and create potential pathways into the assembly.
In areas subject to intense storms and wind-driven rain, those details become even more important. The objective isn't simply to specify materials that can tolerate water. It is to design the entire enclosure so that water has a predictable path down and away from the home.
That same thinking extends below grade, where foundation waterproofing or damp-proofing, footing drains and properly drained backfill can help prevent groundwater from moving into basements and crawlspaces.
A resilient home, in other words, doesn't assume that it will stay perfectly dry. It anticipates where water will go when it inevitably reaches the building, and directs it somewhere safe.
Just as dangerous as too much water is its opposite — too little. As of September 2026, nearly 60% of the continental United States faces drought conditions, affecting over 100 million U.S. residents, according to the NOAA’s drought monitor. Reducing a home’s water use under all circumstances can keep residents comfortable in the tightest situations and contribute to sustainability goals.
At VISION House Asheville, the team specified high-efficiency, water-conserving plumbing fixtures by Kohler to increase the home’s water efficiency. Among them is the Kohler Anthem EvoCycle, a shower system that gives users the option to cycle some used water back through the showerhead. When active, this system saves an estimated 80% of the water used in a typical shower, according to the manufacturer.
“One of the biggest [water] users in the home is showers,” says Samantha McLelland, Enterprise Program Manager of Sustainability and Water Strategy at Kohler. “On average, they use 17-20% of a household’s water. Having a product like the EvoCycle is significant to helping homes and communities be more resilient.”
While the Anthem EvoCycle comes at a higher price tag than typical shower systems, water-saving fixtures are available across every price point. Builders can look out for products with the EPA’s WaterSense label, or aim to earn the WaterSense label for their homes. Homes built to this standard save up to 30% on water usage compared to the typical home, according to the agency.
For builders, the next frontier in water efficiency goes beyond specifying lower-flow fixtures. New systems and design practices are making it possible to capture, treat and reuse water within the home—or prepare a home to do so in the future.
One of the simplest opportunities for this comes before the drywall goes up. Rather than sending all wastewater into the same drainage system, builders can separately pipe appropriate greywater sources, such as showers and baths, and provide dedicated non-potable supply lines for future reuse. That allows a water-recycling system to be installed initially or added later without requiring a substantial replumbing of the house. Hydraloop, for example, publishes “Recycle Ready” plumbing configurations specifically for new construction.
Builders can also turn greywater recycling into an “appliance” to help homeowners reuse their water. Newer systems are taking much of the complexity out of onsite water reuse. Hydraloop's H300 automatically treats water from showers and baths for reuse in toilets, washing machines and landscape irrigation. Designed for homes with one or two bathrooms, the unit can treat up to 360 liters per day and, according to the manufacturer, reduce total fresh-water consumption by up to 45%. The system is certified to NSF/ANSI 350R and doesn't rely on replaceable filters or chemicals for its treatment process.
Not every greywater strategy requires a sophisticated indoor treatment system. Aqua2use offers greywater diversion systems that capture water from showers, baths and laundry, filter out debris and redirect the water for landscape irrigation. An underground version is designed specifically for builders and plumbers and can be incorporated into new construction below grade, providing a simples route to water reuse when treated indoor reuse isn't necessary.
Rainwater harvesting is evolving, too. Today's more sophisticated systems combine roof catchment, pre-filtration, storage, pumping and treatment rather than simply collecting runoff in a barrel or cistern.
Rainwater Management Solutions, for example, sizes residential systems using roof area, rainfall data, anticipated water demand and intended end uses, and then integrates components such as pre-tank filtration, above- or below-ground storage, pumps, carbon and particulate filtration and UV treatment as needed.
The larger opportunity is to think about water the way that high-performance builders already think about energy: reduce demand first, then capture and reuse resources that would otherwise leave the site. Planning those pathways during design can make sophisticated water conservation far easier—and less expensive—than trying to add it after construction.
A house that survives and even thrives through disaster, or even just a particularly rainy season or extended heat wave, is valuable.
A recently released report from COGNITION Smart Data reveals that experience changes priorities, when it comes to the increasing prevalence of climate disasters and stressors. It found that among consumers, resiliency (27.5%) is now almost as important as saving money (33.6%) as a motivation for adopting solutions like solar—a dramatic change from even three years ago. Among those who have lived through a climate hazard, the old order flips entirely: resiliency becomes the top priority (39.2%), and saving money drops to 22.8%.
“Once a homeowner has gone a week without power or evacuated and watched their house be threatened from afar, the calculus is forever changed,” notes Jennifer Castenson, the report author and Vice President of Cognition Smart Data.
“A high-performing home that uses fewer resources means lower monthly expenses and, in some cases, potential insurance savings,” says Jacob Atalla, Vice President of Sustainability at KB Home, a longtime partner of the WaterSense program. “At a time when affordability is a major concern for buyers, we will continue looking for every opportunity to reduce not only the purchase price of a home, but the ongoing cost of living in it.”