Updated: 01-Mar-10 10:39 ET
| January Construction Spending |
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| Updated: 01-Mar-10 10:39 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.
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% |
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