September New Construction Spending Up 14% Year Over Year

The U.S. Census Bureau reported Monday morning that construction spending in September increased by 0.7% to an estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.094 trillion from the upwardly revised estimate of $1.087 trillion in August. Compared with September 2014, spending is up 14.1%.

For the first nine months of 2014, new construction spending is up 10.5% at an estimated total of $786.6 billion compared with the nine-month total of $711.8 billion in 2014.

The consensus estimate by economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for a rise of 0.4% in construction spending for September. This is the second consecutive month of a 0.7% month-over-month growth rate.

The seasonally adjusted annual rate of spending on private residential construction rose 1.9% to $394.67 billion, compared with the revised August total of $387.5 billion. Private nonresidential construction fell 0.7% month over month and total private construction spending rose 0.6% to $794.16 billion, compared with a revised August total of $789.72 billion.

In the private sector, single family residential construction is 12.7% higher than it was a year ago and multifamily construction is up 26.7% from September 2014. Private, nonresidential construction is up 14.9% year over year.

In the public sector, seasonally adjusted total spending rose 0.7%, compared with August, and 9.4% compared with September 2014. Spending on educational facilities rose 2.4% month over month and is up 10.5% from September 2014 spending. Public residential construction rose 1.2% month over month, and it is up nearly 23% compared with September 2014.

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