New Construction Spending Rises Sharply in January

The U.S. Census Bureau reported Tuesday morning that construction spending in January increased by 1.5% to an estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.141 trillion from the upwardly revised estimate of $1.124 trillion in December. Compared with January 2015, spending is up 10.4%.

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 0.5% in construction spending for January.

The seasonally adjusted annual rate of spending on private residential construction was flat at $433.16 billion with the revised December total of $433.11 billion. Private non-residential construction rose 1% month over month and total private construction spending increased 0.5% to $831.41 billion, compared with a revised December total of $827.35 billion.
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In the private sector, single-family residential construction was 7.7% higher than it was a year ago, and multifamily construction was up 30.4% from January 2015. Private, non-residential construction was up 11.5% year over year.

In the public sector, seasonally adjusted total spending rose 4.5% compared with December and was 13% higher compared with January 2015. Spending on educational facilities slipped 1.9% month over month but was up 11.7% from January 2015 spending. Public residential construction fell 1.9% month over month and was down 1.7% compared with January 2015.