Multi-family Spending only Bright Spot in Construction News

Overall construction spending in the U.S. was essentiallyrnunchanged from January to February and there was only slight movement in bothrnpublic and private sector spending.  There was, however, a considerable increase inrnspending on private multi-family residential construction.  </p

The U.S. Census Bureau said today that construction put inrnplace in February was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $967.2 billion,rndown 0.1 percent from January’s estimate of 967.9 billion.  The February 2015 number was 2.1 percentrnhigher than the annual rate of $947.1 billion estimated for a year earlier.</p

Residential spending was also down 0.1 percent from thernprevious month to an annual rate of $355.6 billion which was 1.9 percent lowerrnthan the $362.3 billion spending rate in February 2014.  </p

On a non-adjusted basis total construction spending totaled wasrnestimated at $65.8 billion during the month compared to $67.0 billion inrnJanuary and residential spending dropped from $24.1 billion to $23.3 billion.  During the first two months of the yearrnspending on all construction was up 2.0 percent from the same time period inrn2014 to $130.3 billion and residential spending dropped 0.8 percent to $47.4rnbillion.</p

Spending on private construction was at a seasonallyrnadjusted annual rate of $698.2 billion, a 0.2 percent increase from the spendingrnpace in January of $696.9 billion and 1.8 percent above the February 2014rnestimate of $686.2 billion.</p

Residential spending in the private sector was at a rate ofrn349.9 billion, 0.2 percent lower than the estimated $350.5 billion a month earlierrnand a -2.1 percent change from February 2014. rnNew single-family construction increased 9.7 percent from February 2014rnat $203.9 billion but lagged the January estimate by 0.2 percent.  Multi-family residential constructionrnspending rose 4.1 percent month-over-month to a rate of $50.9 billion and wasrn31.5 percent above its level in February 2014. rn </p

On a non-adjusted basis total spending in the private sectorrnin February is estimated at $49.0 billion, and residential spending at $22.9 billionrncompared to $49.9 billion and $23.7 billion in January.  Year-to-date total construction spending isrnup 1.7 percent from the same period last year to $98.9 billion and residential year-to-daternspending decreased 1.0 percent to $46.6 billion.  Spending on multi-family construction in thernfirst two months of the year jumped 29.7 percent from a year earlier to $7.6rnbillion.</p

Publically funded construction in February was at arnseasonally adjusted annual rate of $268.9 billion, 0.8 percent below thernrevised $271.0 billion rate in February but up 3.1 percent from the rate inrnFebruary 2014.  Residential spendingrnincreased 3.4 percent on a monthly and 13.9 percent on an annual basis to arnrate of $5.8 billion.

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