Construction spending fell 1.9% in September, Census Bureau reports

U.S. construction spending fell 1.9% in September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $2,186.1 billion, from a revised $2,227.4 billion in August, the Census Bureau reported Monday, Nov. 2.¹ SignalData opened the bureau's release. Figures below come from it unless another source is named.

The September rate was 2.7% below the September 2025 estimate of $2,245.8 billion. Spending for the first nine months of 2026 was $1,649.6 billion, 2.9% below the $1,698.6 billion for the same months of 2025; those two totals are not seasonally adjusted and are a different measure from the annual rates.¹ Reuters, in a story carried by GV Wire, said economists it polled had forecast a 0.3% increase for the month.²

August revised

In its Oct. 1 release, the bureau first put August at $2,203.1 billion, up 0.9% from July.³ Reuters reported that August now shows a 2.0% increase.² All amounts below are seasonally adjusted annual rates, first the Oct. 1 estimate and then the revised figure in Monday's release:³¹

• Total: $2,203.1 billion, now $2,227.4 billion.
• Private: $1,655.3 billion, now $1,680.3 billion.
• Private residential: $882.3 billion, now $898.0 billion.
• Private nonresidential: $773.0 billion, now $782.3 billion.
• Public: $547.8 billion, now $547.1 billion.

Private construction

Private spending fell 2.4% to $1,639.3 billion in September, from $1,680.3 billion in August.¹

Private residential spending fell 5.5% to $848.8 billion, from $898.0 billion, and was 8.9% below a year earlier.¹ By category:

• New single-family: $403.4 billion, from $403.5 billion, a 0.0% change for the month and down 2.4% from a year earlier.¹
• New multifamily: $115.9 billion, from $115.8 billion, up 0.1% for the month and down 0.2% from a year earlier.¹
• Improvements: $329.5 billion, from $378.7 billion, Lesprom reported.⁴ Eye on Housing reported the category down 13.0% for the month and 18.0% from a year earlier.⁵ The release has no separate line for improvements; those amounts match private residential minus new single-family and new multifamily in its table.¹

Private nonresidential spending rose 1.1% to $790.6 billion, from $782.3 billion, and was 2.3% above a year earlier. Private office spending rose 5.5% to $145.6 billion, from $138.1 billion, and private power spending rose 1.2% to $171.7 billion, from $169.7 billion.¹ Eye on Housing, which treats data centers as part of office construction, reported data center spending up 8.6% for the month and 90.3% from a year earlier, and put data centers at 12.2% of private nonresidential spending in September.⁵

Public construction

Public spending fell 0.1% to $546.8 billion, from $547.1 billion. Public education spending was $113.1 billion, virtually unchanged from August, and public highway spending fell 0.3% to $149.2 billion, from $149.7 billion.¹ Reuters reported state and local spending down 0.3% and federal spending up 2.5%.²

Next release

October figures are scheduled for Dec. 1, 2026, at 10 a.m., according to the bureau's release schedule.⁶

What the records do not show

• Not every change is statistically distinct from zero. The bureau's 90% confidence intervals on the monthly changes were plus or minus 0.7% for total spending, 0.5% for private, 1.3% for private residential and 0.5% for private nonresidential, none of which includes zero. The intervals for public spending (1.3%), public education (1.3%) and public highways (3.6%) do include zero, which the bureau treats as not significant.¹
• The release's tables have no separate lines for improvements, data centers, or federal or state and local spending. Those figures are credited to the outlets above and were not checked against bureau tables.
• The release gives amounts and percentages. It does not establish why improvement spending fell or why August was revised.
• These are preliminary estimates subject to revision. The bureau puts the average absolute change from preliminary estimate to first revision at 0.65% for total construction.¹