July Construction Spending Picks Up

Residential construction spending edged up in July, according to numbers from the ""Census Bureau"":http://www.census.gov/.

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Overall, construction spending was at a seasonally adjusted annual pace of $900.8 billion in July, 0.6 percent above June's revised estimate of $895.7 billion and 5.2 percent ahead of July 2012's $856.3 billion.

For the first seven months of the year, construction spending amounted to $493.9 billion, 5.6 percent above the same period in 2012.

Spending on residential construction was at a pace of $340.6 billion, up 0.5 percent from June and 16.8 percent from July 2012.

On the private side, residential construction spending increased 0.6 percent to an estimated annual rate of $334.6 billion. Construction for single-family homes was a rate of $168.2 billion (up 0.5 percent month-over-month), while construction on multifamily dwellings was at a rate of $31.9 billion (up 0.1 percent).

In the public sector, residential construction spending was at an estimated annual rate of $6.0 billion, a 3.1 percent drop from June and a 2.4 percent decline from last year.