The Census Bureau’s report on construction spending said that the value of multifamily residential construction put in place in July was down 0.04 percent from the revised level of the month before. Spending on single-family residential construction was reported to fall 1.9 percent while spending on improvements was up 1.2 percent.
The value of total private residential construction put in place in July 2024 was reported to be $941.6 billion on a seasonally adjusted, annualized basis. This figure, which includes spending on both new construction and on improvements, was reported to be down $3.7 billion month-over-month. However, June’s figure was revised higher by $17.3 billion. Residential construction spending in July was reported to be up 7.7 percent year-over-year.
Multifamily construction spending reported lower despite revision
The value of new private construction of multifamily residential buildings put in place in June was reported to be $129.1 billion on a seasonally adjusted, annualized basis. This was down $56 million from the revised level for June. In addition, the June figure was revised lower by $912 million, so the preliminary multifamily construction spending figure reported this month is $968 million, or 0.74 percent, lower than the preliminary figure for June reported last month. The reported value of multifamily housing construction put in place in July was 6.7 percent lower than the year-ago level.
The first chart shows the difference between the levels of multifamily construction put in place reported for last two month and the level reported this month. It shows that the revisions to the data in this month’s report reversed last month’s reported gain. The new data indicates that multifamily construction spending continued a steady decline in June but that the rate of decline moderated in July.
For reference, the Census Bureau’s New Residential Construction report said the number of unit completions in July in buildings with 5 or more units fell 24.4 percent from the level of the month before. Completions were 49.2 percent higher than their year-earlier level.
Governments were reported to have put $11.3 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 $421.4 billion on a seasonally adjusted, annualized basis. This was down $8.1 billion from the revised (-$1.53 billion) level for June but was up 4.0 percent year-over-year.
The value of improvements to residential buildings put in place in July was reported to be $391.1 billion on a seasonally adjusted, annualized basis. This was up $4.49 billion from the revised (+$19.73 billion) level for June and was up $60.5 billion from the year-earlier level. The Census Bureau does not separate out improvements for single-family and multifamily residential buildings.
Looking long term
The following chart shows the value of residential construction put in place each month since January 2012. It also shows the trend line for single-family residential construction based on growth in construction volume during the period from January 2012 to June 2018.
The chart shows that the value of multifamily residential construction put in place has been on a downward trajectory for the last year. It is now down 8.1 percent from its recent high in June 2023.
The value of single-family construction put in place has also been on a downward trajectory recently, but only since last March. It is down 4.3 percent since then.
The value of improvements put in place both for last month and the month before were revised sharply higher in this month’s report, with gains of $12 billion or more. The size of the June revision greatly exceeds the size of the reported month-over-month change. The value of improvements put in place reached a recent low in November 2023 and has been trending upward since then.
The report from the Census Bureau also includes information on spending on other types of construction projects. The full report can be found here.
