November 6, 2012 (Shirley Allen)
Low inventory of existing homes kept the nation’s home builders busy in September as spending for both private single-family and multi-family construction continued to increase in September according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Spending for private residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $285.9 billion in September, up 2.8 percent from a revised estimate of $278.0 billion in August.
Total monthly spending by builders for both residential and non-residential private construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $580.5 billion, up 1.3 percent from the revised estimate of $572.8 billion in August.
Builders still spent 20.9 percent more on private residential construction in September than they did a year ago when $236.5 billion was spent, while the total amount builders spent for all private construction was 14.4 percent higher than the $507.2 billion spent in September of last year.
Construction spending for new private single-family homes increased 3.9 percent from August to September with builders spending a seasonally adjusted $137.2 billion in September compared to $132.0 billion in August.
Single-family home construction spending was 25.7 percent higher than in September of 2011, when builders spent $109.0 billion on building new single-family homes.
Multi-family private construction spending was 1.3 percent higher than in August, climbing to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $22.6 billion. In August, builders spent $22.3 billion on multi-family construction.
Multi-family construction spending was 48.9 percent higher than in September of last year, when builders spent a seasonally adjusted $15.2 billion on multi-family dwellings.
The remainder of the private residential construction spending in September, $126.2 billion, was money spent for any type of construction to an existing structure ranging from remodeling to additions to swimming pools to replacement of major systems such as HVAC systems. This was up from the $123.7 billion spent in August and up from the $112.1 billion spent in September of 2011.
Tags: residential construction spending, single-family homes, multi-family dwellings, seasonally adjusted annual rate, remodeling, additions
Source:
Census Bureau
