The headline figures
Total construction spending ran at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $2,157.6 billion in July 2026, 0.5% below the revised June rate of $2,167.7 billion and 3.8% below the July 2025 figure of $2,242.6 billion, according to the Census Bureau release published September 1.
Cumulative spending for January through July came to $1,244.6 billion, 3.5% below the $1,289.7 billion recorded over the same seven months of 2025. The year-to-date comparison is the steadier measure, because it averages out the monthly revisions this series is prone to.
Private construction accounted for $1,614.2 billion of the July annual rate, down 0.5% on the month. Public construction was $543.4 billion, down 0.2%, including $150.3 billion of highway work and $112.3 billion of educational construction.
Residential versus nonresidential
Residential construction was the source of the decline. Value put in place on residential work ran at $859.0 billion, down 1.3% from June's revised $870.6 billion. Private nonresidential construction rose 0.4% over the same month, to $755.2 billion.
Inside the residential total, the detailed tables separate the two product types cleanly. New single-family spending was $395.2 billion at an annual rate in July, down 3.2% on the month and 6.5% year over year. New multifamily was $115.1 billion, up 0.2% on the month and down 0.9% on the year.
Analysis: single-family is falling considerably faster than multifamily in dollar terms, which inverts the pattern of the previous two years. Multifamily spending had been the sector contracting after the 2024 delivery peak; by mid-2026 it had roughly stabilized while detached construction weakened.
What value put in place measures
Construction spending records the value of work performed during the month, not the number of units started or finished. A project contributes to the series gradually over its build period, which is why the data move more smoothly than housing starts and lag them.
That property makes the series useful for a different question than starts answer. Starts describe decisions taken this month; value put in place describes how much construction activity is actually occurring, which is what drives employment, materials demand and contractor revenue.
It is a survey-and-model estimate, seasonally adjusted, and Census publishes explicit confidence intervals alongside each headline change — the monthly figures carry margins large enough that a 0.5% move should not be read as an established decline on its own.
Reading it against the rest of the record
The 6.5% annual decline in single-family value put in place is the figure with the most corroboration elsewhere. Census and HUD recorded housing completions down 16.8% year over year in July and down 27.1% in August, and builders reported cutting prices and raising incentives through the summer.
Multifamily's relative steadiness at $115.1 billion also lines up with the rental data. Annual apartment supply has declined for six consecutive quarters through mid-2026, but a smaller pipeline still under construction generates a fairly stable monthly flow of work performed.
The August construction spending release falls outside this edition's reporting window. The July data, read with the completions figures, describe a residential sector where the amount of work being done is shrinking faster on the detached side than on the apartment side.