Single Family Construction Shows Increase

 

Courtesy of NAHB

The rise in residential construction spending was driven mainly by the remodeling sector, with home improvement spending rising 10.5 percent to 124.4 billion. This increase coincides with the strong rise in existing homes sales since August.

NAHB research has shown homeowners typically invest in alterations and additions soon after purchase, making changes to suit their individual tastes and needs. Therefore, home improvement spending follows a similar trend to existing home sales.

Spending on single-family construction rose a modest 0.8 percent to $108.1 billion, while spending on multifamily construction was down 2.9 percent to $13 billion. Spending on single-family construction has been inching up since November, but the overall improvement has been modest.  Multifamily construction expenditure has been weak, with a steady decline since September.

The downturn was centered on private non-residential construction spending, which fell 6.9 percent to $244.4 billion from $262.7 billion in December. This was driven mainly by an 11.8 percent decline in spending on power generation construction and 9.7 percent decline in spending on healthcare construction.  

The sharp decline in January has pushed the level of private non-residential construction expenditure below private residential construction expenditure for the first time since December 2007.

- Courtesy of NAHB