Eye On Housing
According to estimates from Census Construction Spending data, total private residential construction spending edged up 0.5% in September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $459.5 billion.
Multifamily construction spending continued its record breaking pace and reached $62.1 billion, up by 2.0% over the revised August estimates. Single-family construction spending stood at $236.6 billion, slightly up from the upwardly revised August estimate. This marks a reversal of the downward trend in earlier months. Home improvements rose to $155.0 billion, up by 0.5% over last month.
Single-family spending slipped down by 2.9% over a year ago. Multifamily spending, however, was 9.1% higher since September 2015. Spending on home improvements increased by 4.0% on a year-over-year basis.
The NAHB construction spending index, which is shown in the graph below (the base is January 2000), illustrates the strong growth in new multifamily construction since 2010, while new single-family construction spending has slowed down.
The pace of private nonresidential construction spending declined 1% on a monthly basis, however, was 4.1% higher than a year ago. The largest contribution to this year-over-year nonresidential spending gain was made by the class of office (27.2% increase), followed by lodging (23.7% increase), and amusement and recreation (18.1% increase).
It’s interesting to see that construction spending is on the rise for multifamily construction and is beginning to slow down for single-family construction. Let’s see if this trend continues to hold true in the coming months and into 2017. Great post.