Residential Construction Bucked Spending Trend in August

While overall construction spending fellrnin August, both public and private spending on residential construction increasedrnduring the month.  The Census Bureaurnreported this morning that construction spending in all categories was down 0.6rnpercent from June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $837.1 billion.  The July construction spending estimate wasrnrevised substantially upward to $842.0 billion from the original estimate of $834.4rnbillion.  The August number was 6.5rnpercent higher than the $786.3 billion annual rate one year earlier. </p

Private construction spending was at anrnannual rate of $562.2 billion, down from 564.8 billion in July, a -0.5rnchange.  Private residential constructionrnspending was at a rate of 273.5 billion, up 0.9 percent from July and 17.8rnpercent from August, 2011.  Residentialrnconstruction numbers for July were originally reported at $264.62 billion, arnnumber we questioned at the time.  ThernJuly estimate has now been revised to $271.1 billion.</p

In the private sector, spending was uprnfor both single family and multi-family construction.  Single-family spending was estimated atrn$131.2 billion compared to $127.6 billion in July, a 2.8 percent increase, andrn$108.6 billion in August 2011, a 20.8 percent improvement.  The July single-family number was revisedrnupward slightly from $127.45 as earlier reported.</p

Multi-family spending was at an annualrnrate of 23.1 billion, up from 22.3 billion month-over-month and 15.9 billionrnyear-over year.  The latter was a 44.8rnpercent increase.</p

In the public sector total constructionrnwas down 0.8 percent to $274.9 billion compared to $277.2 billion in July andrn$284.8 billion a year earlier. rnResidential construction was at a rate of 6.4 billion, 1.2 percentrnhigher than in July but a -27.7 percent downturn year-over-year.</p

Construction Spending</p

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