[1]More money is being put into construction to meet constant demand from consumers. The U.S Census Bureau [2]of the Department of Commerce [3]announced today that construction spending for May [4]reached an estimated amount of $1,035.8 billion, 0.8 percent increase from the revised April figure of $1,027 billion.
The report found for the first 5 months of this year, construction spending amounted to $382.1 billion, 5.9 percent above the $360.8 billion for the same period in 2014. Residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $359.5 billion in May, 0.3 percent above the revised April estimate of $358.5 billion. Seasonally adjusted spending in the residential sector has increased every month so far this year. Seasonally unadjusted residential spending dropped slightly for the first two months of 2015 and then picked up momentum in March at a rate of approximately $27.9 billion and is now at $32.2 billion for May.
Construction spending during April 2015 [5] was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,006.1 billion for April, 2.2 percent above March’s revised estimate of $984 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau Department of Commerce announced in April. The April rate was recently revised to $1,027 billion.
In April 2015, the rate was is 4.8 percent above the April 2014 estimate of $960.3 billion, the Bureau reported. During the first 4 months of this year, construction spending increased 4.1 percent from $277.3 billion in 2014 to $288.7 billion this year.
Robert Dietz, Ph.D., VP for tax and market analysis at the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), predicted that single-family construction will continue to increase in 2015 in the NAHB’s Eye on Housing blog.
“NAHB analysis of Census construction spending data finds that the pace of residential construction spending improved on both a monthly and year-over-year basis for April,” Dietz said.
The seasonally adjusted annual rate of single-family construction spending was $206 billion, up 1.6 percent from March, and on a year-over-year basis, the pace of single-family construction spending was up more than 9 percent from April 2014.
“It is worth noting that the Census measure for total private residential construction spending shows a 2.1 percent year-over-year decline, despite annual gains for single-family and multifamily development,” Dietz said. “This decline is due to a significant decrease in the separate Census improvement category, which contrasts with other measures, including the NAHB Remodeling Market Index, which indicates strength for the home improvement sector.”
Click here to view the U.S. Census Bureau's May 2015 Construction Rate Report. [4]