Tuesday, March 01, 2011

Constuction Spending: January 2011

Today, the U.S. Census Bureau released their January read of construction spending showing near-cycle low levels of spending for residential construction while indicating a continued and notable decline for non-residential spending.

On a month-to-month basis, total residential spending increased 5.28% from December but remained 7.74% below the level seen in January 2010 and a whopping 63.70% below the peak level seen in 2006 while single family construction spending increased 0.83% since December but declined 6.7% since January 2010 and whopping 77.01% below it's peak in 2006.

Non-residential construction spending declined 6.94% since December, dropping 13.16% since January 2010 and a whopping 42.66% below the peak level reached in October 2008.

The following charts (click for larger dynamic versions) show private residential construction spending, private residential single family construction spending and private non-residential construction spending broken out and plotted since 1993 along with the year-over-year, month-to-month and peak percent change to each since 1994 and 2000 – 2005.