Sluggish February Construction Data Points to Soft Commercial Market in 1Q 2011

Construction spending during February 2011 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $760.6 billion, 1.4 percent below the revised January estimate of $771 billion, according to the Department of Commerce. The February figure is also 6.8 percent below the February 2010 estimate of $815.8 billion.

During the first two months of this year, construction spending amounted to $103.7 billion, 8.2 percent below the $112.9 billion for the same period in 2010.

Private construction

Spending on private construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $468 billion, 1.4 percent below the revised January estimate of $474.6 billion. Residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $228.5 billion in February, 3.7 percent below the revised January estimate of $237.2 billion. Nonresidential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $239.6 billion in February, 0.9 percent above the revised January estimate of $237.4 billion. Several key market segments for the electrical industry, including the office, educational and manufacturing sectors, were all off at least 20 percent YTY.

Public construction

The estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of public construction spending was $292.5 billion, 1.3 percent below the revised January estimate of $296.4 billion. Educational construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $67.1 billion, 3.7 percent below the revised January estimate of $69.6 billion. Highway construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $83.8 billion, 0.4 percent above the revised January estimate of $83.4 billion.

Value Of New Construction Put In Place — February 2011

Value of Construction Put-in-Place ($ billions, seasonally adjusted annual rate)

Feb '11₁ Jan '11₂ Mo. % Change Feb '10 YTY % Change Total Construction 760.6 771.0 -1.4 815.80 -6.8 Total Private Construction¹ 468.0 474.6 -1.4 524.64 -10.8 Residential 228.5 237.2 -3.7 248.74 -8.1 New single family 106.1 108.0 -1.7 114.99 -7.7 New multi-family 12.6 12.8 -1.5 15.47 -18.7 Nonresidential 239.6 237.4 0.9 275.90 -13.2 Lodging 7.2 7.3 -1 13.00 -44.7 Office 21.3 21.7 -1.9 27.72 -23.3 Commercial 35.0 35.3 -0.8 40.08 -12.6 Health care 27.4 27.7 -1.1 29.61 -7.4 Educational 11.7 11.9 -1.7 14.69 -20.1 Religious 4.6 4.8 -3.9 5.59 -17.9 Amusement and recreation 5.3 5.5 -3.7 5.67 -6.2 Transportation 9.8 9.6 2 8.15 19.9 Communication 17.9 17.6 1.5 18.84 -5.2 Power 68.6 66.7 2.8 68.60 0 Electric 54.6 52.8 3.3 53.86 1.3 Manufacturing 29.6 28.0 5.6 42.67 -30.6 Total Public Construction² 292.5 296.4 -1.3 291.16 0.5 Residential 8.9 9.5 -6.4 8.75 1.7 Office 11.8 12.2 -3.3 13.51 -12.9 Commercial 3.0 3.1 -2.2 3.11 -3.4 Health care 10.2 10.2 -0.3 8.89 14.8 Educational 67.1 69.6 -3.7 76.26 -12 Public safety 10.3 10.4 -0.9 12.39 -17 Amusement and recreation 10.0 10.0 -0.6 10.00 -0.2 Transportation 29.1 29.2 -0.3 31.08 -6.5 Power 12.7 12.5 1.1 8.67 46 Highway and street 83.8 83.4 0.4 75.71 10.6 Sewage and waste disposal 23.1 23.4 -1.4 22.86 1.2 Water supply 14.1 15.0 -6.1 13.36 5.4 Conservation and development 7.5 6.7 11.3 5.66 31.9

1-Preliminary; 2-Revised

Note: The U.S. Census department changed its construction categories beginning with its May 2003 statistics. With the changes in the project classifications, data now presented are not directly comparable with those data previously published in the regular-format press releases and tables. Direct comparisons can only be made at the total, total private, total state and local, total federal, and total public levels for annual and not seasonally adjusted monthly data. For more information, check out http://www.census.gov/const/www/c30index.html.