February 2, 2012 (Shirley Allen)
Private residential construction spending improved again in December, increasing 0.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $241.2 billion, up from a revised estimate of $239.4 billion in November according to the U.S. Census Bureau. It was the fourth consecutive month of improvement for residential builders.
Total monthly spending by builders for both residential and non-residential private construction increased 2.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $529.7 billion, up from the revised estimate of $518.8 billion in November.
The estimate for private residential construction spending in November was revised downward almost $2.7 billion and the estimate for all private construction was also revised downward $3.5 billion.
Builders spent 4.9 percent more on private residential construction in December than they did a year ago when $230.0 billion was spent, while the total amount builders spent for all private construction was 8.3 percent higher than the $489.0 billion spent in December of last year.
Construction spending of new private single-family homes increased 1.5 percent from November to December with builders spending a seasonally adjusted $111.0 billion in December. The estimate for November was revised upward from $109.0 billion to $109.3 billion.
Single-family home construction spending was 3.7 percent higher than in December of 2010, when builders spent $107.0 billion on building new single-family homes.
Multi-family private construction spending was 0.3 percent lower than in November, climbing to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of just under $16.1 billion. The estimate for November was revised upward from $15.4 billion to just over $16.1 billion.
Multi-family construction spending was 18.8 percent higher than in December of last year, when builders spent a seasonally adjusted $13.5 billion on multi-family dwellings.
The remainder of the private residential construction spending in December, $114.1 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 an increase from a downwardly revised $113.9 billion in November and up from the $109.7 billion spent in December of 2010.
Tags: residential construction spending, single-family homes, multi-family dwellings, seasonally adjusted annual rate, remodeling, additions
Source:
Census Bureau
