Total Construction Spending Clobbers Forecast for January

Construction Spending Gained 1.8% Monthly, 6.8% Year-Over-Year

Total construction spending was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,369.2 billion, 1.8% (±0.8%) higher than the revised December estimate of $1,345.5 billion.

That’s 6.8% (±1.3%) higher than the January 2019 estimate of $1,282.5 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Monday.

Private Construction

Spending on private construction came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,022.7 billion, 1.5% (±0.7%) higher than the revised December estimate of $1,007.6 billion.

Residential construction came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $554.8 billion in January, a gain of 2.1% (±1.3%) from the revised December estimate of $543.6 billion.

Nonresidential construction came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $468.0 billion in January, 0.8% (±0.7%) higher than the revised December estimate of $464.1 billion.

Public Construction

The estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate for public construction spending came in at $346.5 billion, 2.6% (±1.5%) higher than the revised December estimate of $337.8 billion.

Educational construction came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $81.5 billion, which is 0.7% (±1.8%) higher than the revised December estimate of $80.9 billion.

Highway construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $103.9 billion, 5.4% (±4.6%) above the revised December estimate of $98.6 billion.