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Spending Stalls for Home Construction in October

Total construction spending picked up in October following a dip in September, though the story was just the opposite for homebuilding.

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The ""Census Bureau"":http://www.census.gov/ released on Monday its ""construction spending numbers"":http://www.census.gov/construction/c30/pdf/release.pdf for both September and October, catching up on releases delayed by the partial government shutdown.

In September, total construction spending was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $901.2 billion, down from August's $903.8 billion. Spending for total [COLUMN_BREAK]

residential construction, however, perked up, rising to an annual rate of $334.5 billion ($324.1 billion private and $5.8 billion public).

For October, Census put estimated construction spending at an adjusted annual rate of $908.4 billion, rising 0.8 percent month-over-month and 5.3 percent year-over-year. Through the end of the month, estimated spending for 2013 year-to-date was $747.0 billion, 5.0 percent above the same period in 2012.

Spending on residential construction in October was down 0.5 percent from the previous month, falling to an adjusted estimated rate of $332.9 billion. On the private side, spending came to a rate of $326.9 billion, down 0.6 percent compared to September but up 17.8 percent compared to October 2012.

Spending on new single-family construction faltered slightly in October--dropping 0.6 percent to a rate of $170.3 billion--while new multifamily spending rose for the third straight month, up 2.2 percent to a rate of $34.5 billion.

In the public sector, spending on residences was at a rate of $6.0 billion, recovering 4.6 percent from September but still one of the lowest rates in recent months.

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