Construction Spending Up 0.4% in April

A ""Census"":http://www.census.gov/ report released Monday put construction spending at an estimated annual rate of $860.8 billion (seasonally adjusted) in April, a 0.4 percent rise from March's revised estimate of $857.7 billion.

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On a yearly basis, April's figure was 4.5 percent above last year's $825.1 billion.

Year-to-date, construction spending amounted to an estimated $250.7 billion, 4.5 percent above the first four months of 2012 ($239.8 billion).

Spending on homebuilding was at an estimated yearly rate of $308.3 billion in April, 0.2 percent down from March but 18.3 percent above April 2012.

In the private sector, residential construction spending came out to a rate of $301.9 billion, 0.1 percent below the revised March estimate of $302.2 billion. On the single-family side, spending was an estimated $165.8 billion, an increase of 1.4 percent month-over-month and 38.6 percent year-over-year. New multifamily construction spending was an estimated $29.2 billion, up 3.4 percent from March and 48.6 percent from April 2012.

Nonresidential private construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $300.1 billion in April, 2.2 percent above the revised March estimate of $293.7 billion.

Spending on residential building in the public sector was at a rate of $6.5 billion, a drop of 5.4 percent and 0.6 percent from March 2013 and April 2012, respectively.

The monthly drop in residential construction spending is consistent with the ""National Association of Home Builders'"":http://www.nahb.org/default.aspx (NAHB) Housing Market Index, which ""dropped two points"":https://themreport.com/articles/weak-prices-drop-builder-confidence-for-3rd-straight-month-2013-04-15 to 42 in April as builders contended with low credit availability and rising construction costs.