Construction spending during January 2018 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,262.8 billion, nearly the same as the revised December estimate of $1,262.7 billion. The U.S. Census Dept. said the January figure is 3.2% above the January 2017 estimate of $1,223.5 billion.
Private construction. Spending on private construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $962.7 billion, 0.5% below the revised December estimate of $967.9 billion. Residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $523.2 billion in January, 0.3% above the revised December estimate of $521.8 billion. Spending on single-family construction was stronger than multi-family construction on a month-over-month and year-over-year (YOY) basis, and was up 8.8% YOY.
Nonresidential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $439.6 billion in January, 1.5% percent below the revised December estimate of $446.2 billion.
Public construction. In January, the estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of public construction spending was $300.1 billion, 1.8% above the revised December estimate of $294.8 billion and up 8.2% YOY. Educational construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $76.7 billion, 2.1% above the revised December estimate of $75.2 billion and 7.1% over Jan. 2017.
Health care also saw a nice increase, with a 9% bump over Dec. 2017 to $11.6 billion. The January data was tracking at a 37.7% increase over Jan. 2017.