The Census Bureau released the latest new residential Construction data on Tuesday, August 18.
Topline figures showed housing starts fell 12.4% from June and 13.5% from July 2025. Single-family starts were down 9.9% from June, as well. Permitting activity was up, however, increasing 5% from June and 3.1% from July 2025.
Maor Greenberg, co-founder and CEO of Spacial, an AI-powered structural engineering platform for residential construction and a 19-year veteran of the construction and real estate industries, shared the following comments about the latest data.
- What was unexpected in July: “The unexpected figure is single-family starts, which totaled 808,000. That’s the lowest of the year so far and 86,000 under the permit line. Builders are getting approvals and then sitting on them. That’s something to keep an eye on.”
- On single-family starts: “Single-family starts weren’t flat. Every month this year has been at 889,000 or higher. July’s number was 808,000, a decline of 89,000 and the weakest reading of 2026. That makes me think that things are no longer plateauing.”
- Why he’s watching single-family numbers more than multi-family: “Multifamily starts jumped from 282,000 in May to 499,000 in June and now 421,000 in July. That’s mostly project timing and not indicative of a meaningful trend. Single-family starts are still the signal. Single-family units under construction are also down 7.2% from a year ago. If August single-family starts are back in the low 800s, as they were in July, the trend does not indicate that things are plateauing. Instead, it’s a decline.”
