September 6, 2012 (Shirley Allen)
Spending on private residential construction fell for the first time in four months in July as builders increased the amount they spent on building homes but homeowners tightened their wallets on home improvements according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Spending for private residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $264.6 billion in July, down 1.6 percent from a revised estimate of $268.9 billion in June.
Total monthly spending by builders for both residential and non-residential private construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $558.7 billion, down 1.2 percent from the revised estimate of $565.6 billion in June.
Builders still spent 19.0 percent more on private residential construction in July than they did a year ago when $222.4 billion was spent, while the total amount builders spent for all private construction was 15.0 percent higher than the $485.8 billion spent in July of last year.
Construction spending for new private single-family homes increased 1.5 percent from June to July with builders spending a seasonally adjusted $127.5 billion in July compared to $125.6 billion in June.
Single-family home construction spending was 19.0 percent higher than in July of 2011, when builders spent $107.0 billion on building new single-family homes.
Multi-family private construction spending was 2.8 percent higher than in June, climbing to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $22.0 billion. In June, builders spent $21.4 billion on multi-family construction.
Multi-family construction spending was 44.5 percent higher than in July of last year, when builders spent a seasonally adjusted $15.2 billion on multi-family dwellings.
The remainder of the private residential construction spending in July, $115.2 billion, was money spent for any type of construction to an existing structure ranging from remodeling to additions to swimming pools to replacement of major systems such as HVAC systems. This was down from the $121.9 billion spent in June but up from the $100.2 billion spent in July of 2011.
Tags: residential construction spending, single-family homes, multi-family dwellings, seasonally adjusted annual rate, remodeling, additions
Source:
Census Bureau
