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Random freezes, missing sound and display glitches usually trace back to one bad driver. Find and replace yours safely.Free scan · under a minuteHigher financing and product costs are weighing on residential housing, in Steve Miller’s assessment, while Construction was reported in contraction for a second consecutive month in the September 2026 ISM Services Business Survey. Those findings do not mean the overall services sector was contracting: its Services PMI remained above the survey’s expansion threshold.
What Miller said about housing and higher costs
Steve Miller, CPSM, CSCP, then chair of ISM’s Services Business Survey Committee, said higher capital costs would affect investment and have a direct impact on residential housing in construction. ISM quoted him saying, “It will definitely have a direct impact for residential housing in the construction industry.” He also described increased product and financing costs as an area where an impact was already being seen and said he expected it to continue. ISM’s October 6 account reports his assessment; it is not a measured estimate of how much interest rates have changed housing activity.
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What the September ISM survey reported
The ISM Services PMI registered 54.9% in September 2026, down from 55.4% in August, according to the ISM-issued September report. ISM treats readings above 50 as expansion and readings below 50 as decline for the applicable index, with Supplier Deliveries as the exception. The overall Services PMI therefore indicated expansion, despite the decline from August.
Within the report’s industry-level findings, Construction was in contraction for a second consecutive month. ISM also identified Construction as the only industry reporting lower new orders for a second month in a row. The cited report materials do not give a numerical Construction-specific index reading, so the contraction finding should not be translated into an invented score.
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Overall services readings are not construction readings
The September Business Activity Index was 56.5%, and the New Orders Index was 59.8%. Both are overall Services measures, not Construction-specific values. The contrast is important: the overall sector’s PMI was in expansion while Construction’s industry-level conditions were described as contracting.
What respondents said about mortgage rates
Comments included in the release connected housing conditions with rates and inventory. One respondent said, “Home sales are slowing as mortgage rates increase and inventory shrinks.” Another said, “Interest rates continue to drive buyers out of the market.” These are comments from survey respondents, not independently verified findings or a calculation isolating interest rates’ effect.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the findings do—and do not—establish
The report is a survey of U.S. services-business conditions for September 2026. Its Construction finding is an industry classification within the Services PMI context, not a national measure of construction output, housing sales, permits, starts, or construction spending. It does not quantify the size of an interest-rate effect or separate rates from other influences, including inventory and product costs. The defensible takeaway is that Miller attributed pressure on residential housing to higher capital and financing costs, while ISM reported a second consecutive month of contraction for Construction in its industry-level survey findings.
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