Industry benchmarks on profit margins, asset levels, and equity positions are important because they allow businesses to compare their performance to their peers, and that can be extremely helpful in identifying areas for improvement and increasing efficiencies. This is the reason why NAHB periodically conducts a survey asking single-family builders mwke to confidentially provide us their income statements and balance sheets. Complete results can be found in the recently released Cost of Doing Business Study: Editionshowing that profit margins continue to increase, but have yet to reach levels. Operating expenses i. Profitability levels in are the highest reported in the Cost of Doing Business series since That year, the average gross profit margin for single-family builders was The net profit margin, meanwhile, went from 7.