Construction put in place
- daniellozano5
- Jan 12
- 1 min read
This chart shows construction put in place still sitting near historic highs but the growth rate has collapsed and turned negative. In plain English: projects are finishing, but new ones aren’t replacing them. Momentum broke before the headlines did.Here’s the tension most investors are missing:Construction dollars stayed high because 2021–2022 projects were already financed.But YoY growth going negative tells us the pipeline behind today’s deliveries is thinning fast.Rent growth looks weak right now.Concessions are up.Markets like Austin, Phoenix, and Atlanta feel “oversupplied.”That’s frustrating and costly because many investors stop their analysis there. They assume flat rents mean a weak asset class. They pause acquisitions. They underwrite defensively. They wait for “clarity.”Meanwhile, the real risk quietly shifts from too much supply to not enough future supply.Subtle signal:When construction growth turns negative, today’s softness often plants the seeds for tomorrow’s pricing power.What matters next isn’t how many units are delivering, it’s how few are being started.
The current rent pause is a digestion phase, not a demand collapse.Household formation continues. Homeownership affordability remains broken.And the supply valve is closing faster than most models assume.The investors who win the next rent cycle won’t react to today’s headlines, they’ll position ahead of tomorrow’s scarcity.Worth pressure-testing your rent assumptions with this lens.Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Moody´s Analytics, Principal Real Estate (data as of July 31, 2025).
