Construction Spending Slips for First Time in Over a Year

U.S. construction spending has been on the positive side for a year and a half—that is until now.

Spending in the construction sector dipped 0.4 percent in November 2015 to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,122.5 billion, according a release from the U.S. Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce on Monday morning.

However, the November 2015 figure is up 10.5 percent year-over-year from November 2014's estimate of $1,016.1 billion.

This decline marks the first and largest decrease in construction spending since June 2014, according to the Bureau.

The data shows that October's construction spending estimate total was revised to $1,127.0 billion. In addition, for the first 11 months of 2015, construction spending amounted to $1,011.9 billion, 10.7 percent above the $913.9 billion for the same period in 2014.

Private construction as a whole reached a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $828.2 billion, down 0.2 percent from the revised October estimate of $829.7 billion.

The Census Bureau's data found that residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $427.9 billion in November, up 0.3 percent from the revised October estimate of $426.8 billion.

New single family construction spending totaled $226.7 billion in November, up from October's total of $225.3 billion.

Just last month the Bureau reported that construction spending in the U.S. rose to the highest level since December 2007 in October 2015, when the recession had just began.

The U.S. Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce announced then that cconstruction spending rose 1.0 percent in October from the previous month's revised estimate of $1,096.6 billion to reach an eight-year high of $1,107.4 billion. According to the report, construction spending in October is up 13.0 percent from last October's estimate of $979.6 billion.

Recent reports have shown that increasing demand and low inventory levels are fueling home prices and are likely the driving factor of the uptick in construction spending.

 

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