Though overall construction is mostly flat from last year, both single family and multifamily are putting up some encouraging numbers.

Residential construction spending was up just 1.3 percent from September to October and 1.8 percent from Oct. 2013, rising to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $353.802 billion, according to the latest report from the Census Bureau.

Of course, there is much more to new construction than those two stats, and thankfully, digging beneath the surface reveals a considerable upside. Looking through the Census Bureau’s more specific numbers, we found that though single-family and multifamily construction rose just 1.8 and 1.0 percent from September to October, both areas are seeing double-digit increases from last year; single family is up 13.2 percent year-over-year, and multifamily is up 27 percent.

And when we step even further back, the numbers are even more encouraging; take a look at our graph below to see why: