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Construction Spending Up 0.1% in May

hard-hatConstruction spending edged up 0.1 percent from April to May, though private homebuilding outlays came down slightly.

The Commerce Department reported Tuesday that construction spending during May was at an estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of $956.1 billion, just up from April's revised estimate of $955.1 billion and 6.6 percent higher than the May 2013 estimate of $896.6 billion.

During 2014's first five months, the government estimates construction spending came to $358.1 billion, up 8.2 percent from the same time last year.

Spending on residential projects in May was at a pace of slightly less than $360 billion, falling more than $5 billion (1.4 percent) from April. Private residential construction accounted for $354.8 billion of that figure.

On the private side, spending was down from April in both single- and multifamily construction. Outlays on single-family homebuilding were down 1.4 percent to $187.6 billion, while spending on multifamily projects dipped 0.6 percent to $40.5 billion.

The data lines up with the most recent report of housing starts from the Census, which showed single-family numbers declining 6 percent from April.

At the same time, spending on public residential projects edged up 1.8 percent to $5.2 billion.

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