Spending on total private construction, residential construction, and new single-family construction further dropped in August, according to a Monday release from the U.S. Department of Commerce. The result echoes the prolonged slump in construction jobs released by the August ADP non-farm employment report that Architect reported earlier.
Spending on private residential construction dipped to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $449.2 billion in August, marginally down from the upward-revised rate of $450.4 billion in July, but still ahead of the reading of $443 billion in August 2015. Spending in the private residential construction sector has been trending up gradually during the past six years–after falling to a low of $230.5 billion in May 2009–but it remains well below the pre-crisis peak level of $678.0 billion reached in February 2006.
New single-family construction spending closed August with a $235.6 billion, down -0.3% month-over-month, still an increase of 1.4% year-over-year. Spending on new multifamily construction saw a noticeable improvement of 2.4% month-over-month, and 13.9% year-over-year, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $62 billion. The multifamily sector has seen a steady upward streak since the year 2011.
The overall construction industry (including total private construction and total public construction) slid to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.14 trillion this month, -0.7% below the revised rate of $1.15 trillion in July. On a year-over-year basis, total residential construction (including both private and public) spending this August also slid -0.3% from the $1.15 trillion reported in last August.
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This article was originally published on our sister site, BUILDER.