Construction Spending Flat in July

Construction spending was largely unchanged in July according to data released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.  Spending on all public and privately funded building was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.1532 trillion, statistically unchanged from the $1.1535 trillion rate in June. 

The July rate was 1.5 percent higher than the July 2015 pace of $1.1359 trillion.  Year-to-date spending through July is estimated at $647.7 billion, 5.6 percent higher than all construction spending in the first seven months of last year.

Spending on privately funded construction overall was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $875.0 billion, up 1.0 percent from June and 4.4 percent higher than a year earlier.  Year-to-date private spending, at $489.48 billion, is up 7.5 percent from the same period in 2015.

Private residential spending was at a seasonally adjusted pace of $445.46 billion, an 0.3 percent gain from June and 1.9 percent higher than in July 2015.  New single family construction dipped 0.2 percent from the previous month to $238.14 billion but remained 1.7 percent higher than the prior July.  Multi-family construction was also down for the month by 0.6 percent at $59.77 billion but remained almost 20 percent above the pace a year earlier.

On a non-seasonally adjusted basis an estimated $41.89 billion was spent by the private sector on residential building during July and $255.56 billion was spent during the first seven months of the year.  The year to date number is up 6.6 percent from 2015.

Single family construction during the month was $22.00 billion and year to date it is $135.89 billion; the latter figure representing an 8.9 percent gain from the same period in 2015.  Multi-family construction, unadjusted, was estimated at $5.04 billion for the month and $34.40 billion thus far this year, 21.5 percent above spending last year.

Total public construction expenditures in July were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $278.19 billion with $6.278 billion of that total spent on residential construction.  Both figures are well below those a year earlier, by 7.3 percent and 6.5 percent respectively.