Builders broke ground on apartments and other buildings of five or more units at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 344,000 in August, down 22.5% from July’s revised 444,000, the Census Bureau said on Sept. 17. Compared with August 2025, when the rate was 407,000, the latest figure is 15.5% lower. The drop concerns the multifamily segment that adds rental units, and it arrives while nearly half of the nation’s renter households already spend more than a third of their income on housing.
What the Census tables show for buildings of five or more units
The monthly report separates single-family homes, buildings of two to four units and buildings of five or more. For the five-or-more category, the August new residential construction tables show 344,000 starts against 444,000 in July, after revision, and 407,000 in August 2025. The two-to-four unit category was marked “S,” meaning the estimate did not meet the agency’s publication standards.
The August numbers are preliminary and will be revised. Census also attaches a margin of error to each monthly change. The 22.5% decline from July carries a margin of plus or minus 24.9%, and the agency flags such figures with an asterisk. A change that is smaller than its margin cannot be told apart from no change at all in that month’s sample, so the year-over-year decline of 15.5% and the pattern across several months carry more weight than a single monthly swing.
In annual-rate terms, the gap from July is 100,000 units, and the gap from August 2025 is 63,000 units. Buildings of five or more units made up about 27% of the 1,275,000 total starts rate in August, with single-family homes accounting for most of the rest. Because these are annualized, seasonally adjusted rates rather than counts of buildings, they do not mean that this many units were physically started in a single month; the figures show the pace a month would imply over a full year.
Permits and completions tell a different story
Other five-or-more series in the same release did not fall as sharply. The Census Bureau’s press release for the August report put authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more at a rate of 467,000 in August, and completions at a rate of 302,000. Permits at 467,000 exceed the 344,000 starts rate by 123,000 units a year, which means more multifamily projects were cleared to build than actually began in the month.
The same release shows five-or-more permits down 3.1% from July but up 9.4% from a year earlier, while completions of five-or-more units fell 15.9% from July and 35.7% from a year earlier. Completions count buildings finished in the month, and starts count buildings begun, so the two series describe different points in a project’s life. In August, completions at 302,000 ran below starts of 344,000, and both were well under the 467,000 permit rate.
Completions across all housing types were 1,128,000 at an annual rate, down 11.9% from July and 27.1% from a year earlier. The multifamily figure is therefore part of a broad decline in finished housing, not an isolated drop.
Single-family building went the other way
The multifamily decline came in a month when single-family construction rose. Single-family starts were 918,000 at an annual rate, up 7.6% from July, though that change also carried an asterisk with a margin of plus or minus 14.0%. Total housing starts were 1,275,000, down 2.6% from July and 1.2% from a year earlier.
Demand for finished new houses is a separate question. The Census Bureau’s new residential sales report for August, released Sept. 24, estimated 684,000 new single-family houses sold at an annual rate and 483,000 for sale, a supply of 8.5 months at the current pace. The median new-home price was $393,700.
Rental vacancy has not tightened, and renters are stretched
A fall in apartment starts matters most where rental supply is scarce. The Census Bureau’s second-quarter housing vacancy survey, released July 28, put the rental vacancy rate at 7.3%, unchanged from the first quarter and compared with 7.0% in the second quarter of 2025. The agency described the year-over-year difference as not statistically different, according to its quarterly homeownership and vacancy report.
Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies reported in America’s Rental Housing 2026 that nearly half of renter households spend more than a third of their income on housing, “another record high in 2024.” The report described the pace of multifamily construction as “still elevated” but “cooling amid tough economic headwinds,” noted that “larger buildings drive rental stock increases,” and said rents on new leases show modest declines. It also warned that the aging rental stock faces significant investment needs.
The Census Bureau’s next new residential construction report will show whether the August step down repeats. Until then, the 344,000 rate stands as the latest official count of apartment starts, 15.5% below the pace of a year earlier.
Circuit-breaker credits that reach renters as well as owners
Older renters and owners on fixed incomes often qualify for property-tax credits, freezes or circuit-breaker refunds that are not applied automatically. The credits are aimed at housing costs that take a large share of a small income.
The Senior Property Tax & Home-Cost Relief Kit describes the circuit-breaker credit that includes renters and the five kinds of property-tax relief.
Read about the circuit-breaker credit in The Senior Property Tax & Home-Cost Relief Kit.
This article was produced with AI assistance and checked against the primary sources linked above.
Warren Cohen is a finance writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, covering personal finance topics including credit, banking, and beginner investing. He earned his degree in business administration from Arizona State University and began his career working in consumer finance, where he gained direct experience with lending and credit systems. He now writes for personal finance websites and fintech platforms, focusing on clear, practical content that helps readers make informed financial decisions.
