New Construction Spending Posts November Gain

The U.S. Census Bureau reported Thursday morning that construction spending in October rose by 0.4% to an estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of about $1.173 trillion, from the upwardly revised estimate of $1.167 trillion in September. Compared with October 2015, total spending is up 3.4%.

For the first nine months of 2016, new construction spending rose 4.5% to an estimated total of $972.2 billion, compared with the 2015 total of $930.7 billion.

The consensus estimate by economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for a rise of 0.6% in construction spending for October and a year-over-year decline of 0.2%.

For the month of October, private residential construction rose 0.5% month over month to $453.7 billion. Private nonresidential construction fell 1% month over month, and total private construction spending on a seasonally adjusted annual basis fell 0.2% to $879.7 billion, compared with a revised August total of $881.6 billion.

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In the private sector, single-family residential construction was 1.6% lower than it was a year ago, and multifamily construction was up 11.4% from October 2015. Private, nonresidential construction was up 4.8% year over year.

In the public sector, seasonally adjusted total spending rose 2.8% compared with September and was 0.6% lower compared with October 2015. Spending on educational facilities increased by 4.1% month over month, and was up 11.7% from October 2015 spending. Public residential construction rose 11.9% month over month, and remained down 0.4% compared with October 2015.

Private-company spending on new housing was up 4.7% year over year thru October, and private sector spending on nonresidential construction was up 4.8% year over year. Total public and private construction spending was up 3.4% compared with October 2015.

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