Multifamily Construction Boosts Residential Spending Numbers

Construction spending in September was largely unchanged from where it was in August.  The U.S. Census Bureau said that private and public sector spending during the month was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.330 trillion, not statistically different from the 1.329.0 billion the previous month.  The figure does represent a gain of 7.2 percent from September 2017 spending of $1.240.4 trillion.

On a non-seasonally adjusted basis total spending during the month was $119.7 billion, down from $123.3 billion in August.  In 2018 through September a total of $982.9 billion has been spent, a 5.5 percent increase over the first nine months of 2017.

Privately funded construction in September was at an annual rate of $1.020 trillion, up 0.3 percent from August and 6.1 percent more than in September 2017. Non-adjusted spending from the private sector totaled $89.5 billion for the month and has reached $755.5 billion for the year-to-date (YTD) through September. This is 5.1 percent more than the $718.8 billion spent over the same period last year

Residential spending increased by 0.6 from August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $556.4 billion which was 5.1 percent more than was spent a year earlier.  Expenditures for single-family construction dipped 0.8 percent for the month but remained 3.1 percent ahead year-over-year. The seasonally adjusted rate for the month was $283.2 billion.

Multifamily construction was responsible for the slim gains in overall residential spending. The sector was up by 8.7 percent from August to an annualized $64.2 billion which puts it ahead by 7.5 percent year-over-year.

On a non-adjusted basis there was  $49.5 billion spent on residential construction during the month, $26.23 billion of it on single-family homes. Residential spending is up on a YTD basis by 6.4 percent from last year to a total of $417.1 billion and aggregated single family spending is ahead of the previous year by 7.3 percent to $214.3 billion.

Despite the strong August showing, multifamily spending in the private sector was flat on a YTD basis.  Spending in the first nine months of both 2017 and 2008 was approximately $44.9 billion.

Spending in the public sector was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $309.1 billion, down 0.9 percent from August, but ahead of September 2017 by 11.0 percent.  On a YTD basis spending is up 7.0 percent with $227.4 billion in construction put in place.

Publicly funded residential construction continues to decline; a non-adjusted $528 million was spent in September and the total has declined each month since at least May.  YTD spending is down 3.1 percent from last year.