National Association of Home Builders analysis of Census construction spending data showed Wednesday that total US private residential construction spending for September increased, rising to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of US$395 billion. On a month-over-month basis, private single-family spending was US$222 billion, up by 1.3 per cent over the revised August estimate. Private multifamily spending increased to US$57 billion, up by 5 per cent.
Annually, the pace of multifamily spending rose 27 per cent from the September 2014 estimate, and spending on single-family construction was 13 per cent higher.
The NAHB-constructed spending index, which is shown in the graph below (the base is January 2000), indicates that recent gains have been driven by the steady increase in multifamily construction spending. The pace of the multifamily spending is gradually slowing. NAHB anticipates accelerating growth for single-family spending in 2015.
US Construction Spending
The pace of total nonresidential construction spending dipped by 0.1 per cent monthly in September, but the annual increase from the revised September 2014 estimate was 12.4 per cent. The largest contribution to this year-over-year nonresidential spending gain was made by the class of manufacturing-related construction (41 per cent increase), followed by lodging (33 per cent increase) and amusement/recreation (31 per cent increase).