New Construction Spending Ticks Higher in December

The U.S. Census Bureau reported Monday morning that construction spending in December increased by 0.1% to an estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.117 trillion from the downwardly revised estimate of $1.116 trillion in November. Compared with December 2014, spending is up 8.2%.

For 2015, new construction spending rose 10.5% at an estimated total of $1.097 trillion, compared with the 2014 total of $993.4 billion.

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

The seasonally adjusted annual rate of spending on private residential construction rose 0.9% to $429.6 billion, compared with the revised November total of $425.8 billion. Private non-residential construction slipped 2.1% month over month, and total private construction spending fell 0.6% to $824.04 billion, compared with a revised November total of $828.83 billion.
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In the private sector, single-family residential construction is 8.7% higher than it was a year ago, and multifamily construction is up 12% from December 2014. Private, non-residential construction is up 11.8% year over year.

In the public sector, seasonally adjusted total spending rose 1.9% compared with November and is now 3.9% higher compared with December 2014. Spending on educational facilities slipped 0.5% month over month, but it is up 9.4% from December 2014 spending. Public residential construction fell 11.7% month over month but is up 4.7% compared with December 2014.