Private Residential Construction Spending Held Firm in September

U.S. construction spending eased back slightly in September, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $950.92 billion.  The U.S. Census Bureau reported that this was down 0.4 percent from the seasonally adjusted number in August of $955.17 billion and 2.9 percent higher than the September 2013 rate of $924.15 billion.  Spending in both private and publicly funded sectors of construction was lower than in the previous month.   

On a non-seasonally adjusted basis total construction in September was $88.25 billion compared to 88.71 billion in August and $86.10 billion a year earlier.  Year-to-date expenditures at the end of September were $710.07 billion, 6.1 percent more than the $669.34 billion at the same point in 2013.

Total private construction was at an annual rate of $680.03 billion in September, down 0.1 percent from August but up 3.4 percent from a year earlier.  The August estimate was $680.78 billion and the September 2013 number was $657.83 billion.  Private residential spending was at a rate of $349.10 in September, up 0.4 percent from August's rate of $347.75 billion and 0.7 percent from the September 2013 rate of $346.55 billion.

Non-adjusted numbers

Private construction in September was at a non-adjusted rate of $61.13 billion, compared to $60.77 billion in August and $59.55 billion one year earlier.  To the end of September there had been $506.77 billion spent in the private sector for all types of construction, an increase of 8.6 percent from the previous year. 

Private residential spending during the month was $32.37 billion, down from $32.64 billion in August but higher than the $59.55 spent in September 2013.  Year to date spending in 2014 was $262.94 billion compared to $246.77 billion, an increase of 6.6 percent.  New single family construction was 11.8 percent higher at the end of September than it was one year earlier and multifamily construction rose 35.0 percent, from $23.307 billion to $31,307 billion.

Public construction in September was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $270.90 billion, 1.3 percent below the August estimate of $274.4 billion and up 1.7 percent from a year earlier when it totaled 266.33 billion.  Publicly funded residential construction was 5.76 billion of the total, an increase of 4.7 percent from August and 1.3 percent from September 2013.