April Construction Spending Still Besting 2019 Numbers

Overall spending on construction fell in April, down 2.9 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.346 trillion from 1.387 trillion. This still left the rate 3.0 percent higher than it was in April 2019.

On a non-adjusted basis, spending was $110.492 billion compared to $107.758 billion in March and  106,786 the previous April. Thus far in 2020, spending has totaled $412.465 billion, a 7.1 percent increase from the year-to-date (YTD) spending in 2019.

Privately funded construction was at an annual rate of $1.004 trillion, down 3.0 percent from the $1.036 trillion rate in March, but still up 3.8 percent from the expenditures a year earlier. On an unadjusted basis spending was a tad higher than in March, $83.865 billion compared to $83.654 billion, At $318.110 billion, however, spending was significantly higher for the YTD, up 6.8 percent, than the $297.850 billion expended during the first four months of 2019.

Residential spending declined by 4.5 percent in April compared to the previous month, $536.780 billion compared to $561.945 billion. That was still an increase of 6.2 percent on an annual basis.

Single-family expenditures fell by 6.6 percent and multi-family spending by 9.1 percent to $280.951 billion and $53.620 billion, respectively, in April and, while single-family spending was up 4.5 percent on an annual basis, multifamily spending was down 14.7 percent.

Residential spending was 45.179 billion in March on an unadjusted basis and 168.003 for the YTD. The latter figure is up 11.1 percent year-over-year. Spending for single-family homes dropped from $23.834 in March to $22.915 billion in April but the YTD through April was up 10.8 percent at $87.933. Multifamily spending is down 7.4 percent compared to the first four months in 2019.

Publicly funded construction dipped 2.5 percent for the month at $342.108 annualized, 0.08 percent higher than a year earlier. The residential construction sector was down 5.2 percent from March at $7.532 billion but is 16.9 percent higher than in April 2019. Publicly funded residential spending posted a notable increase for the year to date. At $2.297 billion it is up 26.6 percent over 2019.