October 2, 2012 (Shirley Allen)
The nation’s homebuilders continued to spend more money on construction in September as both single-family and multi-family construction increased during the month but total private construction spending fell for the second consecutive month according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Spending for private residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $273.5 billion in August, up 0.9 percent from a revised estimate of $271.1 billion in July.
Total monthly spending by builders for both residential and non-residential private construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $562.2 billion, down 0.5 percent from the revised estimate of $564.8 billion in July.
Builders still spent 17.8 percent more on private residential construction in August than they did a year ago when $232.2 billion was spent, while the total amount builders spent for all private construction was 12.1 percent higher than the $501.5 billion spent in August of last year.
Construction spending for new private single-family homes increased 2.8 percent from July to August with builders spending a seasonally adjusted $131.2 billion in August compared to $127.6 billion in July.
Single-family home construction spending was 20.8 percent higher than in August of 2011, when builders spent $108.6 billion on building new single-family homes.
Multi-family private construction spending was 3.7 percent higher than in July, climbing to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $23.1 billion. In July, builders spent $22.2 billion on multi-family construction.
Multi-family construction spending was 44.8 percent higher than in August of last year, when builders spent a seasonally adjusted $15.9 billion on multi-family dwellings.
The remainder of the private residential construction spending in August, $119.2 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 $121.3 billion spent in July but up from the $107.7 billion spent in August of 2011.
Tags: residential construction spending, single-family homes, multi-family dwellings, seasonally adjusted annual rate, remodeling, additions
Source:
Census Bureau
