Construction Spending More than Quadrupled Consensus Forecast in January

Construction spending in January more than quadrupled the consensus at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,279.6, 1.3% higher than December. Total construction spending for January was 0.3% higher than last year’s estimate of $1,276.3 billion.

The consensus forecast was looking for a 0.3% gain for the month, with forecasts ranging from a low of -0.4% to a high of 1.0%.

Private Construction

Spending on private construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $966.0 billion, 0.2% higher than the revised December estimate of $964.2 billion.

Residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $511.4 billion in January, which is 0.3% less than the revised estimate of $512.9 billion for December.

Nonresidential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate
of $454.7 billion, or 0.8% higher than the revised December estimate of $451.2 billion.

Public Construction

In January, the estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of public construction spending was $313.6 billion, 4.9% higher than the revised estimate of $299.0 billion for December.

Educational construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $77.8 billion, 2.2% above the revised December estimate of $76.1 billion.

Highway construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $99.9 billion, 11.8% above the revised estimate of $89.3 billion in December.