New Construction Spending Falls Nearly 2% in April

The U.S. Census Bureau reported Wednesday morning that construction spending in April dipped by 1.8% to an estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of about $1.134 trillion from the upwardly revised estimate of nearly $1.14 trillion in March. Compared with April 2015, total spending is up 4.5%.

For the first four months of 2016, new construction spending rose 8.7% to an estimated total of $334.8 billion, compared with the 2015 total of $307.9 billion.

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

For the month of April private residential construction slipped 1.5% month over month to $439.7 billion. Private nonresidential construction also fell 1.5% month over month, and total private construction spending on a seasonally adjusted annual basis fell 1.5% to $843.15 billion, compared with a revised March total of $855.91 billion.

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In the private sector, single family residential construction was 8% higher than it was a year ago and multifamily construction was up 21.4% from April 2015. Private, nonresidential construction was up 3.4% year over year.

In the public sector, seasonally adjusted total spending fell 2.8% compared with March and was 1.2% higher compared with March 2015. Spending on educational facilities decreased by 2.5% month over month, and it is up 4.5% from April 2015 spending. Public residential construction fell 2.8% month over month and remains down 7.4% compared with April 2015.

Private-company spending on new housing remains up 12% year over year and private sector spending on nonresidential construction is up 1.4% year over year. Total public and private construction spending is up 4.5% compared with April 2015.

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