The Census Bureau’s report on construction spending said that the value of multifamily residential construction put in place in March was effectively unchanged from the downwardly revised level of the month before. Spending on single-family residential construction was reported to rise 0.13 percent while spending on improvements was down 1.2 percent.
The value of total private residential construction put in place in March 2025 was reported to be $937.7 billion on a seasonally adjusted, annualized basis. This figure, which includes spending on both new construction and on improvements, was reported to be down 4.01 billion month-over-month. However, the figures for the prior two months were each revised higher by over $12.7 billion. Residential construction spending in March was reported to be up 2.8 percent year-over-year.
Multifamily construction spending continues to slide
The value of new private construction of multifamily residential buildings put in place in March was reported to be $115.5 billion on a seasonally adjusted, annualized basis. This was down $3 million from the revised (-$686 million) level for February. The reported value of multifamily housing construction put in place in March was 12.1 percent lower than the level of March 2024.
The first chart shows the difference between the levels of multifamily construction put in place reported for the last two months and the levels reported this month. All three recent reports show downward trends in the dollar values of multifamily housing put in place. In addition, all revisions to the data have been to the downside. For example, January’s initial report of $116.9 billion in completions was revised down to $116.2 billion in last month’s report and to $115.6 billion in this month’s report.
For reference, the Census Bureau’s New Residential Construction report said the number of unit completions in buildings with 5 or more units fell again in March after also falling in February. March completions were down 8.2 percent from the level of the month before. Completions were down 4.4 percent from their year-earlier level.
The value of new single-family residential construction put in place in March was $436.8 billion on a seasonally adjusted, annualized basis. This was up $550 million from the revised (-$3.95 billion) level for February and was down 0.9 percent year-over-year.
Governments were reported to have put $11.8 billion in residential construction in place in March on a seasonally adjusted annualized basis.
The value of improvements to residential buildings put in place in March was reported to be $385.4 billion on a seasonally adjusted, annualized basis. This was down $4.56 billion from the revised (+$17.42 billion) level for February and was up $45.41 billion from the year-earlier level. The Census Bureau does not separate out improvements for single-family and multifamily residential buildings.
Long-term trends
The following chart shows the value of residential construction put in place each month since January 2017. It also shows the trend line for single-family and multifamily residential construction based on growth in construction volume during the period from January 2012 to July 2018.
The chart shows that the value of multifamily residential construction put in place periodically lags behind the trend line but then catches up. The current lag is larger than has been seen in the recent past and may partly be a consequence of multifamily construction spending exceeding its trend in 2023.
The value of single-family construction put in place had been rising recently, both in absolute terms and also relative to its long-term trend line. However, this month’s data shows its growth leveling out.
The value of improvements put in place has been on a rising trend, but not uniformly.
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.
