October New Construction Spending Up 13% Year Over Year

The U.S. Census Bureau reported Tuesday morning that construction spending in October increased by 1% to an estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.107 trillion from the upwardly revised estimate of $1.097 trillion in September. Compared with October 2014, spending is up 13%.

For the first 10 months of 2014, new construction spending was up 10.7% at an estimated total of $888.1 billion, compared with the 10-month total of $802.3 billion in 2014.

The consensus estimate by economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for a rise of 0.6% in construction spending for October.

The seasonally adjusted annual rate of spending on private residential construction rose 1% to $399 billion, compared with the revised September total of $395 billion. Private nonresidential construction rose 0.6% month over month and total private construction spending rose 0.8% to $802.4 billion, compared with a revised September total of $795.8 billion.

In the private sector, single-family residential construction is 11.4% higher than it was a year ago and multifamily construction is up 27.9% from October 2014. Private, nonresidential construction is up 15.3% year over year.

In the public sector, seasonally adjusted total spending rose 1.4%, compared with September, and 6.1% compared with October 2014. Spending on educational facilities was flat month over month and is up 8.4% from October 2014 spending. Public residential construction fell 1% month over month and is up 28.1% compared with October 2014.

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