Economy

New Construction Spending Slips Nearly 1% in May

Paul Ausick

Published: July 1, 2016 12:03 pm

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 6:09 am

The U.S. Census Bureau reported this morning that construction spending in May dipped by 0.8% to an estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of about $1.143 trillion from the upwardly revised estimate of nearly $1.152 trillion in April. Compared with May 2015, total spending is up 2.8%.

For the first five months of 2016, new construction spending rose 8.2% to an estimated total of $438.5 billion compared with the 2015 total of $405.4 billion.

The consensus estimate by economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for a rise of 0.6% in construction spending for May and year-over-year gain of 4.5%.

For the month of May private residential construction remained essentially flat month over month at $458.3 billion. Private non-residential construction fell 1.3% month-over-month and total private construction spending on a seasonally adjusted annual basis fell 0.3% to $859.3 billion compared with a revised April total of $861.9 billion.

In the private sector, single family residential construction is 6.3% higher than it was a year ago and multi-family construction is up 23.9% from May 2015. Private, non-residential construction is up 5.4% year over year.

In the public sector, seasonally adjusted total spending fell 2.3% compared with April and is now 2.6% lower compared with March 2015. Spending on educational facilities decreased by 5.4% month over month, and is down 0.8% from May 2015 spending. Public residential construction fell 0.6% month over month, and remains down 4% compared with May 2015.

Private-company spending on new housing remains up 5.4% year over year thru May and private sector spending on non-residential construction is up 3.9% year over year. Total public and private construction spending is up 2.8% compared with May 2015.