Construction spending was essentially flat in May when
compared to April. The U.S. Census
Bureau said on Monday that there were seasonally adjusted annualized expenditures
of $1.23 trillion during the month on all types of construction. The revised estimate for April was $1.23
billion as well, but that resulted from a revision of the original sharp decline
in spending reported for March, 1.4 percent, to -0.7 percent. On a year-over-year basis total spending was
up 4.5 percent.
Analysts polled by Econoday had expected an increase
of 0.5 percent. Estimates from no change
to a positive 0.9 percent.
On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, total spending in
May was $103.16 billion compared to $99.506 in April. For the first five months
of 2017 the Bureau estimates spending at $469.2 billion, up 6.1 percent from expenditures
at the same point in 2016.
Private spending overall was at a seasonally adjusted
annual rate of $943.2 billion, a -0.6 percent change from April’s estimate of
$949.3 billion, but up 6.2 percent compared to the previous May. On a non-adjusted basis, private spending
totaled $80.87 billion compared to $78.20 billion in April. Year to date spending is 9.0 percent higher
than a year earlier.
Private spending on residential construction fared little
better than the overall numbers in May.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, expenditures were $509.62 billion, a
decrease of 0.6 percent month-over-month from $512.34 billion. Spending was substantially higher than last
May, an increase of 11.2 percent. Most of the monthly decline was attributed to
multi-family construction which fell by 3.3 percent (but remained 3.0 percent
higher than in May 2016) while single-family construction fell by 0.3
percent. It too remained strong compared
to last year, up 7.9 percent.
Unadjusted residential spending totaled $44.28 billion
during the month and is at $195.17 billion for the first five months of the
year. In April, $42.77 billion was spent and the year-to-date number is 1.2
percent higher than last year.
Unadjusted spending on single family construction was
$22.16 billion in May and on multi-family it was $5.2 billion. The figures year-to-date for the two sectors were
$98.30 billion and $25.69 billion, increases of 7.3 percent and 6.2 percent
respectively from their numbers in 2016.
The seasonally adjusted rate of public sector spending
was $286.90 billion in May, an increase of 2.1 percent from April but down 0.6
percent from May 2016. Residential
spending was at a rate of $6.26 billion, up 9.2 percent for the months but off
by 7.2 percent on an annual basis.
