The Census Bureau’s report on construction spending shows that the value of residential construction put in place in July was down 1.5 percent from the revised (+1.2 percent) level of the month before. Residential construction spending was up 14.1 percent year-over-year.
Single-family decline continues
The reported value of total private residential construction put in place in July 2022 was $920.4 billion on a seasonally adjusted, annualized basis. This figure, which includes spending on both new construction and on improvements, was reported to be down $14.0 billion from June’s revised figure. A drop in the value of new single-family residential construction accounted for the bulk of the decline.
The value of new private construction of multifamily residential buildings put in place in July was reported to be $100.5 billion on a seasonally adjusted, annualized basis. This was reported to be down $591 million (0.58 percent) from the revised (+$493 million) level for June. The value of multifamily housing construction put in place in July 2022 was 1.2 percent lower than the level of July 2021.
These reports are in contrast to the Census Bureau’s New Residential Construction report which said that the number of unit completions in July in buildings with 5 or more units was up 6.7 percent for the month but down 1.9 percent year-over-year.
State and local governments were reported to have put $9.3 billion in residential construction in place in July on a seasonally adjusted annualized basis.
The value of new single-family residential construction put in place in July was $450.1 billion on a seasonally adjusted, annualized basis. This was down $18.9 billion (4.0 percent) from the revised (+$1.4 billion) level for June but was up 2.9 percent from the level of July 2021.
The value of improvements to residential buildings put in place in July was reported to be $355.6 billion on a seasonally adjusted, annualized basis. This was up 38.3 percent from the year-earlier level and was up 1.5 percent from the revised (+$8.7 billion) level for June. The Census Bureau does not separate out improvements for single-family and multifamily residential buildings.
Charting the data
The following chart shows the value of residential construction put in place each month since January 2001.
The chart shows that, after a brief downturn, the value of single-family residential construction began to rise in April 2019, well before the pandemic. After slowing down again in the April to June 2020 period in response to the original COVID lockdowns, single-family construction rose strongly. However, the value of single-family residential construction put in place peaked in April and has fallen since then.
The value of multifamily housing put in place also rose early in the pandemic period, but has been essentially flat since late 2020.
The report from the Census Bureau also includes information on spending on other types of construction projects. The full current report can be found here.
