Spending on private residential construction dropped a bit in April following a relatively March, according to data released Wednesday morning by the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Spending on private residential construction ended April at $439.7 billion, down 1.5% from the upwardly revised $446.3 billion in March, still 8% higher than the tally for April 2015. This is the first time spending fell since the beginning of this year, but it remains within a healthy range frequently seen over the past a few months. Spending in the private residential construction sector hit a low of $230.5 billion in May 2009 before bouncing back to the current level around $420 billion. It remains well below the pre-crisis peak of $678.0 billion spotted in February 2006.
New single-family construction outlays remained unchanged from last month at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $237.5 billion but still were up 12.9% year-over-year. New multi-family construction outlays also ticked down 3.1% month-over-month in the same month but still posted 21.4% growth year-over-year to a rate of $60 billion.
The overall construction industry (including total private construction and total public construction) posted an 4.5% gain year-over-year, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.1 trillion in April. Total residential construction (including both private and public) also increased 7.7% year-over-year to an annual rate of $445.7 billion. Both sectors decreased marginally compared to the previous month, by -1.8% and -1.5%, respectively.
Read the full Value of Construction Put in Place Survey release here>>
