US construction spending, September 2026: down 1.9% on housing as data centers grow

Housing caused the September decline

Construction spending is the value of building work done each month. It is a key measure of investment in homes, businesses and public works. The figures are seasonally adjusted annual rates. That means regular seasonal swings are removed and each month is scaled up to a full year.

Total residential spending fell 5.4% to $861.2bn and is down 8.8% from a year earlier. Spending on new single-family homes ($403.4bn) and new multifamily buildings ($115.9bn) was essentially flat. Most of the drop came from home improvements, which tend to swing a lot from month to month.

Business construction kept growing, led by data centers

• Private nonresidential spending covers business buildings such as offices, factories and power plants. It rose 1.1% to $790.6bn, up from about $745bn in March–April.
• Data-center spending rose 8.6% to $96.5bn. That is nearly double the $50.7bn of September 2025 and up from $58.1bn in March.
• Data centers now make up about two-thirds of private office spending, which stands at $145.6bn. Office spending has grown more than 5% a month for four straight months.
• Private power spending rose 1.2% to $171.7bn.
• Manufacturing construction fell 0.3% on the month to $167.2bn and is about 18% lower than a year earlier.

September roughly reverses a revised August jump

August's gain was revised up to 2.0%, from 0.9% first reported, and August now stands at $2,227.4bn. August residential spending was revised to +3.6%, from +1.1% first reported. July was revised to -0.2%. September's total is about level with July ($2,184.0bn) and 2.7% below a year earlier ($2,245.8bn). Public spending was flat at $546.8bn.