Briefing.com


January Construction Spending

Updated 09-Mar-10 19:30 ET








Highlights

  • Total construction expenditures declined 0.6% in January after falling 1.2% in December.
  • The drop was exactly in-line with the consensus expectation.
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Key Factors

  • As expected, the increase in housing starts boosted residential construction expenditures as spending rose 1.3%.
  • Nonresidential construction dropped 2.1% in January, as all sectors, with the exception of power, posted losses.
  • Office and commercial construction declined 1.6% and 0.5% respectively and are down roughly 34% each over the last year.
  • Lodging construction fell 9.8% in January as hotels remain over supplied.
  • Public construction declined by 0.7%.

Big Picture

  • These data gets less attention than deserved. The data go directly into the GDP report. Residential construction has dropped to about 3% of GDP, while nonresidential construction is about 4% of GDP.

Category JAN DEC NOV OCT SEP
Nominal (Current) Dollars
Total Construction -0.6% -1.2% -2.5% 1.5% -1.6%
  Private -0.6% -1.7% -2.6% 2.7% -2.4%
    Residential 1.3% -2.8% -2.5% 11.8% -0.6%
    Nonresidential -2.1% -0.7% -2.7% -3.6% -3.7%
  Public -0.7% -0.4% -2.2% -0.9% -0.1%