The December 2025 Quarterly Survey of Construction & Development Activity (Construction Quarterly Survey for short) was conducted from December 4 – 15, 2025 and received 81 responses from leading multifamily construction and development firms.
The Construction Quarterly Survey began in March 2022 and was subsequently revised—first in June 2024, and once more this month—to better capture current trends and the most relevant indicators in the multifamily construction market. Historical data from each of our surveys, both before and after revision, can be found as downloadable spreadsheets on our website.
Construction Indicators 4Q 2025 (% of Respondents)
Starts
43%
Reported starts
to be unchanged
Delays
30%
Reported decrease
in delays
Pricing
44%
Saw deals
repriced
Labor
33%
Reported decrease
in labor costs
Inputs
25%
Reported decrease
in material costs
Respondents report unchanged starts, fewer delays
Multifamily starts were relatively unchanged compared to three months ago, according to respondents (builders and developers) to NMHC’s December Construction Quarterly Survey. More specifically, 25% of respondents reported that their company started fewer projects compared to three months ago, 26% said they started a greater number of projects, while 43% reported starts to be relatively unchanged over the three-month period.
CoStar data show that multifamily starts (in units) have been on a downward trajectory since early 2022, so these survey results suggest that multifamily construction levels may have finally started to stabilize.
Those respondents who reported a decrease in starts most frequently cited economic feasibility (18% of respondents), low rent growth (14%), economic uncertainty (12%), and the availability / cost of construction financing (11%) as the cause of their reduced construction activity.
For projects already started, most respondents reported either fewer construction delays compared to three months ago (30% of respondents) or relatively unchanged levels of delays (51%). Just 8% of respondents thought that construction delays had increased over the three-month period.
- Thirty-five percent of respondents expect labor costs to increase faster than the rate of inflation compared to 20% who expect labor costs to increase at a slower rate than inflation. (Forty-five percent of respondents believe that labor costs will remain about the same / keep pace with inflation).
- Thirty-five percent of respondents expect material costs to increase faster than the rate of inflation compared to 25% who expect material costs to increase at a slower rate than inflation. (Forty percent of respondents believe that material costs will simply keep pace with inflation).
Respondents report positive long-term outlook
While the vast majority of respondents (77%) believe that multifamily construction conditions will remain the same over the next three months (compared to 16% who think conditions will improve and 7% who think conditions will decline), most (70% of respondents) also expect conditions will improve over the next 6-12 months (compared to 22% who think conditions will remain the same and 4% who think conditions will decline).
What are your expectations for the overall multifamily construction market over the next 3 months, 3-6 months, and 6-12 months?
| I expect conditions will improve (i.e., easier to build) | I expect conditions will decline | I expect conditions will remain the same | Don't know / N/A | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Over the next 3 months | 16% | 7% | 77% | 0% |
| Over the next 3-6 months | 33% | 5% | 61% | 0% |
| Over the next 6-12 months | 70% | 4% | 22% | 4% |
Still, respondents also expect labor and material costs to increase faster than the rate of inflation over the next 6-12 months:
Labor and material costs continue to ease
A third of respondents (33%) reported that the cost of construction labor had decreased or increased at a slower rate than inflation over the past three months, compared to just 7% of respondents who thought that labor costs increased faster than the rate of inflation. (The remaining 57% of respondents thought that labor costs had increased at about the same rate as inflation.)
A quarter of respondents (25%) reported that costs for construction materials have decreased or increased at slower rate than inflation over the past three months, while only 5% of respondents thought that material costs increased faster than overall inflation. (The remaining 66% of respondents thought that material costs had increased at about the same rate as inflation.)
How do costs of construction labor and materials compare with three months ago?
| Material Costs | Labor Costs | |
|---|---|---|
| Costs have increased faster than the rate of inflation | 5% | 7% |
| Costs have decreased or increased at a slower rate than overall inflation | 25% | 33% |
| Costs are relatively unchanged / have increased at about the same rate as inflation | 66% | 57% |
| N/A | 4% | 4% |
