The Census Bureau’s report on construction spending said that the value of multifamily residential construction put in place in May was down 0.1 percent month-over-month. Single-family construction spending rose as did spending on improvements.
In the latest report, the Census Bureau updated its seasonal adjustment factors and revised its reported data back to January 2016. However, it only released the adjusted data for total residential spending. It did not release revised data for single-family or multifamily spending except for the period from January 2023 to May 2023 and for May 2022. This makes comparisons to these figures and the calculation of spending on improvements for earlier months suspect.
Multifamily construction spending stagnates
The value of total private residential construction put in place in May 2023 was reported to be $857.4 billion on a seasonally adjusted, annualized basis. This figure, which includes spending on both new construction and on improvements, was up $18.1 billion from April’s revised figure. Residential construction spending in May was reported to be down 11.6 percent year-over-year.
The value of new private construction of multifamily residential buildings put in place in May was reported to be $127.7 billion on a seasonally adjusted, annualized basis. This was down $67 million from the revised level for April. The value of multifamily housing construction put in place in May 2023 was 20.4 percent higher than the level of May 2022.
By comparison, the Census Bureau’s New Residential Construction report said the number of unit completions in May in buildings with 5 or more units surged 24 percent. Completions were also 24 percent higher than their year-earlier level.
Governments were reported to have put $10.2 billion in residential construction in place in May on a seasonally adjusted annualized basis.
The value of new single-family residential construction put in place in May was $362.4 billion on a seasonally adjusted, annualized basis. This was up $6.2 billion (1.7 percent) from the revised level for April and was down 25.0 percent from the level of May 2022.
The value of improvements to residential buildings put in place in May was reported to be $358.4 billion on a seasonally adjusted, annualized basis. This was down $10.0 from the year-earlier level but was up $11.9 billion from the revised level for April. 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 2012. The chart illustrates that the reported value of new multifamily residential construction put in place held steady. The value of new single-family residential construction put in place was up for the first time in a long time. How long is not clear because of the changes to the seasonal adjustment factors. The value of improvements to residential buildings put in place also rose after several months of no growth.
The report from the Census Bureau also includes information on spending on other types of construction projects. The full report can be found here.
