Construction Spending Rose 0.9% in August and Is Still 1.7% Below a Year Ago
The Census Bureau's August estimate puts total construction at a $2,203.1 billion annual rate. Residential work led the monthly gain and remains the weakest leg year over year.
The short answer
- Total construction spending ran at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $2,203.1 billion in August 2026, up 0.9% from July's revised $2,184.5 billion and down 1.7% from August 2025.
- Private residential construction was $882.3 billion, up 1.1% on the month but 4.8% below a year earlier — the steepest annual decline of the three categories.
- Public construction was the only category higher than a year ago, up 2.5%, while private nonresidential was down 1.0%.
- Year to date through August, spending totalled $1,450.4 billion, 3.1% less than the same period of 2025.
Construction spending rose in August and is still running below last year. The Census Bureau, in a release dated 1 October, put total construction at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $2,203.1 billion, 0.9% above July's revised $2,184.5 billion and 1.7% below the $2,242.0 billion rate of August 2025.
Those two directions are not in conflict. The monthly figure says activity picked up from July; the annual comparison says the level it picked up to is lower than where the industry was a year ago.
The three categories
- Private residential: $882.3 billion, up 1.1% from July's $872.7 billion, down 4.8% from August 2025.
- Private nonresidential: $773.0 billion, up 1.0% from July's $765.0 billion, down 1.0% from August 2025.
- Public: $547.8 billion, up 0.2% from July's $546.8 billion, up 2.5% from August 2025.
Public construction is the only one of the three above its year-ago level. Private residential is the furthest below it.
Inside the residential number
Within the $882.3 billion private residential annual rate, new single-family construction accounted for $403.3 billion and new multifamily for $115.8 billion. The remainder is improvements to existing homes, a category that is now larger than new multifamily construction by a wide margin.
What the pipeline looks like
The Census Bureau's separate new residential construction release, published on 17 September and also covering August, describes the stock of work ahead of the spending figures.
- Building permits: 1,394,000 annual rate, down 2.7% from July's revised 1,433,000 but 3.5% above August 2025. Single-family permits were 878,000; authorisations in buildings of five units or more were 467,000.
- Housing starts: 1,275,000, down 2.6% from July's 1,309,000 and 1.2% below August 2025. Single-family starts were 918,000, up 7.6% on the month.
- Housing completions: 1,128,000, down 11.9% from July's 1,280,000 and 27.1% below the August 2025 rate of 1,548,000.
The completions figure is the sharpest move in either release. A 27.1% annual fall in homes finished follows a period of heavy multifamily delivery that has now largely worked through; completions are the tail end of decisions made a year or two earlier, not a reading on current demand.
Next release
The Census Bureau has scheduled the September 2026 monthly construction spending report for 2 November 2026.
Sources
- Monthly Construction Spending, August 2026 (C30 release) — U.S. Census Bureau
- New Residential Construction, August 2026 — U.S. Census Bureau
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- Published:
- 5 Oct 2026, 05:15 UTC
- Last updated:
- 5 Oct 2026, 05:15 UTC
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