August Construction Spending Was $2.203 Trillion, 1.7 Percent Below a Year Earlier

Construction spending in August 2026 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $2,203.1 billion. That is 0.9 percent (±1.0 percent) above the revised July estimate of $2,184.5 billion. The Census Bureau marked that monthly comparison with an asterisk. The 90 percent confidence interval includes zero, so the Bureau does not have sufficient evidence to conclude that the actual monthly change was different from zero. The August figure is 1.7 percent (±1.5 percent) below the August 2025 estimate of $2,242.0 billion. That yearly range stays below zero. During the first eight months of 2026, construction spending amounted to $1,450.4 billion, 3.1 percent (±1.0 percent) below the $1,496.6 billion for the same period in 2025. That year-to-date range stays below zero as well.

The Census Bureau published the release at 10:00 a.m. Eastern on Thursday, October 1, 2026. The release number is CB26-158. The series is the value of construction put in place. This file is August construction spending. Housing starts are the separate Census construction release.

A buyer, a seller, or an owner in Hernando, Citrus, Pasco, Hillsborough, or Pinellas reads this as the national dollar rate for work put in place in August. The house coupon in force is the October 1 Freddie Mac survey: 7.28 percent on the 30-year fixed and 6.60 percent on the 15-year fixed, already briefed with the September jobs release. The policy range after the September 16 FOMC hike is 3.75–4.00 percent. Statewide context stays on Florida markets. A house sits on residential. A building sits on commercial. A written quote starts on the mortgage page.

What the release measures

Value put in place is the dollar value of construction work done during the period, estimated from several sources and surveys. The headline rate is seasonally adjusted and stated at an annual rate. The table note says the figures are adjusted for seasonality and are not adjusted for price changes. A rise in the rate can be more work, higher prices on the same work, or both. This release does not split those two.

Census’s explanatory note is the rule for every percent in the text. A statement such as “2.3 percent (±3.1 percent) above” means the likely range, at 90 percent confidence and for sampling error only, runs from 0.8 percent below to 5.4 percent above. If that range contains zero, the change is not statistically significant. If it does not, the change is. The asterisk is the Bureau’s mark for a range that contains zero. The intervals account for sampling variability. They do not remove bias from response, nonreporting, or undercoverage.

On the total, 0.9 percent (±1.0 percent) above July runs from about 0.1 percent below to about 1.9 percent above. That range contains zero. 1.7 percent (±1.5 percent) below August 2025 runs from about 3.2 percent below to about 0.2 percent below. That range stays under zero. The year-to-date 3.1 percent (±1.0 percent) below runs from about 4.1 percent below to about 2.1 percent below. That range stays under zero too. The month is the comparison Census will not call a change. The year, and the first eight months, are the comparisons it can.

The current month is preliminary. Census says the average absolute percent change from the preliminary estimate to the first revision is 0.65 percent for total construction, 0.75 percent for private construction, and 0.59 percent for public construction. Month-to-month moves in the seasonally adjusted series are often irregular. Census says it may take two months to establish an underlying trend for total construction, and as long as eight months for a specific category.

The news release does not print a Florida total, a Citrus total, or a Hernando, Pasco, Hillsborough, or Pinellas total. The state permit count for the same month is the separate building-permits briefing: Florida authorized 13,980 housing units in August.

The national rate

Table 1 prints the seasonally adjusted annual rate in millions of dollars. August is 2,203,129. Revised July is 2,184,474. Revised June is 2,187,350. May is 2,168,396. April is 2,168,231. August 2025 is 2,242,024. The news release rounds the August, July, and August 2025 totals to $2,203.1 billion, $2,184.5 billion, and $2,242.0 billion.

The dollar gaps are arithmetic on those printed levels. August sits $18.7 billion above revised July on the annualized rate, which is the 0.9 percent the interval does not support as a change. August sits $15.8 billion above revised June. August sits $38.9 billion below August 2025, which is the 1.7 percent the interval does support. Among the five months the table prints from April through August, the August rate is the high. July, after revision, sits a little under June.

The percent from July is the tested monthly comparison. A reader who subtracts June from August and divides is answering a different question, a two-month step the news release does not test. The release’s sentence is July to August, and that sentence carries the asterisk.

Private spending cleared the month

Spending on private construction was a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,655.3 billion, 1.1 percent (±0.5 percent) above the revised July estimate of $1,637.7 billion. That range runs from about 0.6 percent above to about 1.6 percent above. It does not contain zero. Private construction is the part of the August rate whose month the release can call an increase.

Inside private construction, the two blocks moved by the same printed percent and did not share the same result. Residential construction was $882.3 billion, 1.1 percent (±1.3 percent) above the revised July estimate of $872.7 billion. Census marked that line with an asterisk. The range runs from about 0.2 percent below to about 2.4 percent above, and it contains zero. Nonresidential construction was $773.0 billion, 1.0 percent (±0.5 percent) above the revised July estimate of $765.0 billion. That range runs from about 0.5 percent above to about 1.5 percent above. It does not contain zero.

The private total and the private nonresidential total cleared the month. Private residential did not. A buyer watching houses and an owner watching offices are looking at two lines inside one private rate, and only one of those lines cleared.

On the printed millions, private construction is 1,655,280 of the total 2,203,129, which is 75.1 percent of the national rate. Public construction is the other 24.9 percent. Private residential, 882,270 million, is 40.0 percent of the national rate. Those shares are arithmetic on the August levels. The table prints the levels. It does not print the shares.

New houses, and the improvements inside the residential total

The private residential line splits into the two new-construction rows the table prints. New single-family construction was 403,333 million dollars, $403.3 billion, at a seasonally adjusted annual rate. That is 0.2 percent above revised July’s 402,707 million and 3.5 percent below August 2025’s 418,129 million. New multifamily construction was 115,756 million, $115.8 billion, 0.2 percent above revised July’s 115,537 million and 0.6 percent below August 2025’s 116,466 million.

Those percents are the point estimates in Table 1. The news release attaches a confidence interval to private residential as a whole, the 1.1 percent (±1.3 percent) that includes zero. It does not attach a separate interval, in the text, to the single-family row or the multifamily row. Table 3 prints sampling variability for those rows. A 0.2 percent month on either new-construction line is a small point estimate on a category Census says can take months to settle into a trend.

Add the two new-construction rows: 403,333 + 115,756 = 519,089 million, $519.1 billion. The private residential total is 882,270 million, $882.3 billion. Footnote 2 says that total includes private residential improvements. The difference is 363,181 million, $363.2 billion. That remainder is 41.2 percent of private residential spending. New single-family is 45.7 percent. New multifamily is 13.1 percent. A large share of the private residential rate is work on houses that already exist, which is what the improvements footnote is describing, rather than a foundation poured in August.

Over the year, the private residential total is the sharper residential fact in the table. August’s 882,270 million is 4.8 percent below August 2025’s 926,942 million. The total residential line, private plus the small public residential piece, is 894,597 million against 940,035 million, also 4.8 percent lower. New single-family is 3.5 percent lower than its August 2025 rate. New multifamily is 0.6 percent lower. The yearly residential decline in the point estimates is broad. The monthly residential increase is the one the asterisk keeps uncertain.

Offices rose. Factory spending fell.

Private nonresidential spending cleared its month, at 1.0 percent (±0.5 percent). The categories inside it did not move together. The news release states the nonresidential total. The category percents below are the point estimates in Table 1.

Private office construction was 134,119 million dollars, $134.1 billion. That is 4.6 percent above revised July’s 128,199 million and 29.8 percent above August 2025’s 103,300 million. The dollar gap from a year earlier is $30.8 billion on the annualized rate. Total office construction, private and public together, was 150,669 million, 3.9 percent above July and 24.6 percent above August 2025. The private row is where most of that office rate sits.

Private manufacturing construction was 168,209 million, $168.2 billion, against 168,220 million in revised July. The table prints that monthly change as 0.0 percent. Against August 2025’s 209,798 million, the change is 19.8 percent lower, a gap of $41.6 billion on the annualized rate. Total manufacturing, 170,701 million, is 19.2 percent below August 2025. The factory line is still a large category. It is a smaller large category than it was a year earlier.

Those two rows are the private nonresidential story in this print. Office spending is higher than last August by nearly 30 percent on the private point estimate. Manufacturing spending is lower by nearly 20 percent. The net of all private nonresidential categories is the 1.0 percent month that cleared, and a year-over-year point estimate of 1.0 percent below August 2025’s 780,447 million. A net that small can hide an office increase and a factory decrease of much larger size.

Three more private rows are large enough to read beside those two. Private power construction was 165,900 million, 0.9 percent above July and 9.7 percent above August 2025’s 151,277 million. Total power, private and public, was 185,973 million, 0.8 percent above July and 8.5 percent above August 2025. Private commercial construction was 116,448 million, 0.1 percent below July and 5.4 percent below August 2025’s 123,038 million. Private lodging was 23,328 million, 0.1 percent below July and 10.1 percent below August 2025’s 25,954 million. Private health care was 57,026 million, 0.6 percent above July and 5.4 percent below August 2025.

An owner of a small office, a shop, a clinic, or a warehouse is reading a national rate for a category, not the rent on a bay in Spring Hill, Lecanto, Wesley Chapel, Tampa, or St. Petersburg. The office rate and the manufacturing rate moved in different directions over the year. A local lease is a third number, and it is not in CB26-158. The service layer for a building is commercial buying. County files stay on their own pages, including the Hernando commercial overview, the Citrus commercial overview, and the Pasco commercial overview.

Public work, schools, and highways

Public construction spending was a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $547.8 billion, 0.2 percent (±2.0 percent) above the revised July estimate of $546.8 billion. Census marked that monthly comparison with an asterisk. The range is wide enough to include zero. On the table’s point estimate, the public total is 2.5 percent above August 2025’s 534,635 million. The news release does not attach an interval to that yearly public comparison.

Educational construction, the public line the release names, was $113.1 billion, 0.1 percent (±1.5 percent) above the revised July estimate of $112.9 billion. That interval includes zero. The table’s point estimate puts public educational spending 1.3 percent above August 2025. A school district’s enrollment and a national educational-construction rate answer different questions. Citrus County’s student count is the separate population and school briefing.

Highway construction was $150.6 billion, 0.1 percent (±5.6 percent) above the revised July estimate of $150.5 billion. That interval includes zero. The public highway-and-street row in the table is 150,610 million, against 144,279 million in August 2025, a point estimate of 4.4 percent higher. The release’s tested sentence for highways is the tenth of a percent on the month, and that sentence carries the asterisk.

A national highway rate and a contract on one Florida interstate are different objects. The auxiliary-lane job on Interstate 75 from State Road 200 to State Road 326 is the separate road briefing, with its own construction contract and its own calendar. The $150.6 billion in this release is the seasonally adjusted annual rate for public highway and street work in the United States.

Public residential construction is the small residential piece outside the private total: 12,327 million in August, 0.3 percent above July and 5.9 percent below August 2025 on the table’s point estimates. Private residential at 882,270 million is the residential rate that matters for a house. The public residential row is about 1.4 percent of total residential spending.

The first eight months, without the seasonal factor

The year-to-date comparison in the news release is not seasonally adjusted, and it is the comparison that clears: $1,450.4 billion through August, 3.1 percent (±1.0 percent) below $1,496.6 billion in the same months of 2025. Table 2 prints the unadjusted month as well. August 2026, not annualized and not seasonally adjusted, was 202,851 million dollars, $202.9 billion. August 2025’s unadjusted month was 206,857 million, $206.9 billion.

The same table prints year-to-date point estimates under the residential and private rows. Total residential spending through August is 602,220 million against 627,792 million, 4.1 percent lower. New single-family spending is 269,191 million against 284,200 million, 5.3 percent lower. New multifamily spending is 77,286 million against 77,533 million, 0.3 percent lower. Private office spending is 77,900 million against 68,424 million, 13.8 percent higher. Private manufacturing spending is 114,598 million against 147,333 million, 22.2 percent lower. Public construction is 357,017 million against 352,957 million, 1.2 percent higher.

The tested year-to-date line is the total, down 3.1 percent, and that interval does not include zero. The category year-to-date percents are the point estimates beside it. They line up with the seasonally adjusted year: houses lower, offices higher, factories lower, public work a little higher on the point estimate.

Starts, sales, permits, prices, and paychecks

Five other official files sit next to this one. Each one counts a different object, and several of them use August as the data month.

August housing starts, Census and HUD release CB26-147, put privately owned housing starts at a 1,275,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate. Single-family starts were 918,000. Completions were 1,128,000. A start is a unit begun. A completion is a unit finished. CB26-158 is the dollars of work put in place, across houses and every other category, stated as an annual rate. A 918,000 single-family start rate and a $403.3 billion single-family spending rate can both be the August figures because one counts units and the other counts dollars.

August new-home sales, CB26-155, put sales of new single-family houses at 684,000, with a median price of $393,700. A sale in that release is a deposit or a signed agreement. Spending in this release is work done. Builders can spend on houses they have not yet contracted, and they can contract houses whose spending landed in an earlier month.

Florida building permits authorized 13,980 housing units in August, 12.8 percent below July. A permit is an authorization. Spending is work put in place after, and sometimes long after, the authorization. The permit file is the one that prints Florida. This spending file does not.

The July House Price Index rose 0.3 percent on the month and 2.6 percent from July 2025, on the seasonally adjusted purchase-only index. That is a change in the price of houses that sold again. It is not a construction-spending rate, and it is a July file beside this August file. The September employment situation reported construction payrolls up 11,000, with nonresidential specialty trade contractors up 12,000. A paycheck on a crew and a dollar of work put in place are the labor side and the spending side of a job. They are different surveys, and this release does not convert one into the other.

What a buyer, a seller, and an owner do with it

For a buyer of a house that is still being built, the residential lines are the national backdrop. Private residential spending’s month includes zero. Its year, on the table’s point estimate, is 4.8 percent below August 2025. New single-family spending is 3.5 percent below its year-ago rate, and the year-to-date single-family total is 5.3 percent below the same months of 2025. None of those figures is a price for a lot in Hernando, Citrus, Pasco, Hillsborough, or Pinellas, and none of them is a delivery date. The useful local facts are the stage of the house, a written quote dated after the October 1 survey at 7.28 percent, and a current comp. The mortgage page is where the quote starts. An appraisal is the value question on a specific house. Residential buying is the purchase.

For a seller of an existing house, this release is the amount of construction work being done in the country, not the price of the house being listed. The price tape on this site for July is the House Price Index. A pricing conversation still starts from the comparable sales and the condition of the house, which is the subject of the pricing guide. Home selling is where that conversation becomes a listing.

For an owner of a building, or a household that owns a house and is watching the street, the split inside the rate is the part worth keeping. Private spending rose on a comparison that cleared. Private residential did not clear its month, and the residential year is lower on the point estimate. Private offices are higher than a year ago. Private manufacturing is lower. Public highways and public schools printed monthly gains whose intervals include zero. A renovation of a house sits closer to the improvements remainder inside the residential total, the $363.2 billion left after new single-family and new multifamily. A new bay sits closer to the nonresidential rows. The national rate does not price either project.

The through-line

August construction spending ran at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $2,203.1 billion. The 0.9 percent increase from revised July $2,184.5 billion sits inside a ±1.0 percent interval that includes zero. The rate is 1.7 percent (±1.5 percent) below August 2025, and that range stays below zero. The first eight months, $1,450.4 billion, are 3.1 percent (±1.0 percent) below the same months of 2025, and that range stays below zero.

Private construction, $1,655.3 billion, rose 1.1 percent (±0.5 percent), and that range stays above zero. Private nonresidential construction rose 1.0 percent (±0.5 percent), and that range stays above zero. Private residential construction, $882.3 billion, rose 1.1 percent (±1.3 percent), and that range includes zero. New single-family spending was $403.3 billion. New multifamily spending was $115.8 billion. The improvements remainder inside private residential is $363.2 billion.

On the table’s point estimates, private office spending is 29.8 percent above August 2025 and private manufacturing spending is 19.8 percent below it. Public construction rose 0.2 percent (±2.0 percent) on the month. Public education and public highways rose 0.1 percent on the month, and both of those intervals include zero. The next construction-spending report, covering September, is scheduled for November 2, 2026.

Dates already on the calendar

• FOMC minutes of the September 15–16 meeting: Wednesday, October 7, 2026, 2:00 p.m. Eastern.
• Freddie Mac PMMS: Thursday, October 8, 2026. The October 1 survey, at 7.28 percent and 6.60 percent, is the weekly average in force until that release.
• Consumer Price Index for September: Wednesday, October 14, 2026, 8:30 a.m. Eastern.
• September housing starts: Census and HUD, Tuesday, October 20, 2026, 8:30 a.m. Eastern.
• September new-home sales and the FHFA House Price Index with data through August: Tuesday, October 27, 2026.
• FOMC meeting: October 27–28. The statement is due at 2:00 p.m. Eastern on October 28. That meeting does not include a new Summary of Economic Projections.
• September construction spending, CB26 series: Monday, November 2, 2026.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, Monthly Construction Spending, August 2026, release CB26-158, October 1, 2026, 10:00 a.m. Eastern (total $2,203.1 billion, 0.9 percent (±1.0 percent) above revised July $2,184.5 billion, the asterisk marking a 90 percent confidence interval that includes zero; 1.7 percent (±1.5 percent) below August 2025 $2,242.0 billion; first eight months $1,450.4 billion, 3.1 percent (±1.0 percent) below $1,496.6 billion; private $1,655.3 billion, 1.1 percent (±0.5 percent) above revised July $1,637.7 billion; residential $882.3 billion, 1.1 percent (±1.3 percent) above revised July $872.7 billion, asterisk; private nonresidential $773.0 billion, 1.0 percent (±0.5 percent) above revised July $765.0 billion; public $547.8 billion, 0.2 percent (±2.0 percent) above revised July $546.8 billion, asterisk; educational $113.1 billion, 0.1 percent (±1.5 percent) above $112.9 billion, asterisk; highway $150.6 billion, 0.1 percent (±5.6 percent) above $150.5 billion, asterisk; next release November 2, 2026). Census explanatory notes in that release: ranges are 90 percent confidence intervals and account only for sampling variability; a range that contains zero is not statistically significant; it may take two months to establish a trend for total construction and as long as eight months for a specific category; average absolute revisions from preliminary to first revision are 0.65 percent for total, 0.75 percent for private, and 0.59 percent for public. Table 1, seasonally adjusted annual rate, millions of dollars, not adjusted for price changes (August total 2,203,129; July 2,184,474; June 2,187,350; May 2,168,396; April 2,168,231; August 2025 2,242,024; total residential 894,597 and 940,035, 1.1 percent and −4.8 percent; private residential 882,270 and 926,942, 1.1 percent and −4.8 percent; new single-family 403,333, July 402,707, August 2025 418,129, 0.2 percent and −3.5 percent; new multifamily 115,756, July 115,537, August 2025 116,466, 0.2 percent and −0.6 percent; footnote 2, private residential includes improvements; private nonresidential 773,010 and 780,447, 1.0 percent and −1.0 percent; private office 134,119, July 128,199, August 2025 103,300, 4.6 percent and 29.8 percent; total office 150,669, 3.9 percent and 24.6 percent; private manufacturing 168,209, July 168,220, August 2025 209,798, 0.0 percent and −19.8 percent; total manufacturing 170,701, −19.2 percent on the year; private power 165,900 and 151,277, 0.9 percent and 9.7 percent; total power 185,973, 0.8 percent and 8.5 percent; private commercial 116,448 and 123,038, −0.1 percent and −5.4 percent; private lodging 23,328 and 25,954, −0.1 percent and −10.1 percent; private health care 57,026 and 60,261, 0.6 percent and −5.4 percent; public 547,849 and 534,635, 0.2 percent and 2.5 percent; public residential 12,327, 0.3 percent and −5.9 percent; public educational 113,073 and 111,676, 0.1 percent and 1.3 percent; public highway and street 150,610 and 144,279, 0.1 percent and 4.4 percent). Table 2, not seasonally adjusted (August month 202,851 million; August 2025 month 206,857 million; year-to-date total 1,450,353 and 1,496,572, −3.1 percent; residential 602,220 and 627,792, −4.1 percent; new single-family 269,191 and 284,200, −5.3 percent; new multifamily 77,286 and 77,533, −0.3 percent; private office 77,900 and 68,424, 13.8 percent; private manufacturing 114,598 and 147,333, −22.2 percent; public 357,017 and 352,957, 1.2 percent). Disclosure Review Board approval CBDRB-FY26-0231. Census/HUD new residential construction and new residential sales, Census building permits, FHFA House Price Index, BLS Employment Situation, and Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, only as already briefed on those pages.

For help reading a Hernando, Citrus, Pasco, Hillsborough, or Pinellas purchase, sale, or building against this spending rate and a current written quote, contact Bridge Point Business & Real Estate Advisors at 352-515-0226 or request a consultation.