The Census Bureau reported Wednesday that overall construction spending in the US increased in May:
The US Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce announced that construction spending during May 2015 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of US$1,035 billion, 0.8 per cent above the revised April estimate of US$1,027 billion. The May figure is 8.2 per cent above the May 2014 estimate of US$957.6 billion.
US Construction Spending
Spending on private construction was at a seasonal
ly adjusted annual rate of US$752.4 billion, 0.9 per cent above the revised April estimate of US$745.6 billion.
In May, the estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of public construction spending was US$283.4 billion, 0.7 per cent above the revised April estimate of US$281.5 billion.
Private residential spending has been increasing recently, and is 47 per cent below the bubble peak.
Non-residential spending is only 5 per cent below the peak in January 2008 (nominal dollars).
Public construction spending is now 13 per cent below the peak in March 2009 and about 7 per cent above the post-recession low.
On a year-over-year basis, private residential construction spending is up 8 per cent. Non-residential spending is up 13 per cent year-over-year. Public spending is up 3 per cent year-over-year.
US Construction Spending Index
National Association of Home Builders’ analysis of Census Construction Spending data shows that total residential construction spending for May increased to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of US$366.1 billion. On a month-over-month basis, multifamily spending was US$48.7 billion, up by 0.2 per cent over the revised April estimate, while the single-family spending was US$209.4 billion, an increase of 0.03 per cent from April. Annually, multifamily spending rose 20.8 per cent from the revised 2014 estimate and the spending on single-family construction was 11.2 per cent higher than May 2014.
The pace of nonresidential construction spending was also up by 1.1 per cent monthly in May, and the annual increase from the revised May 2014 data was around 8.2 per cent. The largest contribution to this year-over-year nonresidential spending gain was made by the class of manufacturing-related construction (69.5 per cent increase), followed by lodging (30.6 per cent increase) and amusement/recreation (29.8 per cent increase).