Annual Construction Spending Slides Six Percent in November to $806.7 Billion

Construction spending during Nov. 2010 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $810.2 billion, 0.4 percent above the revised October estimate of $806.7 billion, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The November figure is six percent below the November 2009 estimate of $861.5 billion. During the first 11 months of 2010, construction spending amounted to $753.9 billion, 10.6 percent below the $843.1 billion for the same period in 2009.

Private construction

Spending on private construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $491.8 billion, 0.3 percent above the revised October estimate of $490.5 billion. Residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $235.7 billion in November, 0.7 percent above the revised October estimate of $234.1 billion. Nonresidential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $256.1 billion in November, 0.1 percent below the revised October estimate of $256.3 billion. Private office construction increased 1.3 percent to $36.8 billion but is still running 18.9 percent behind Nov. 2009 YTY.

Public construction

In November, the estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of public construction spending was $318.5 billion, 0.7 percent above the revised October estimate of $316.2 billion. Educational construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $73.4 billion, one percent above the revised October estimate of $72.7 billion, but 6.7 percent below the November 2009 rate.

Highway construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $86.8 billion, one percent below the revised October estimate of $87.7 billion.

Value Of New Construction Put In Place — November 2010

Value of Construction Put-in-Place ($ millions, seasonally adjusted annual rate)Nov'10₁Oct'10₂Mo. % ChangeNov'09YTY % ChangeTotal Construction 810,225 806,686 0.4 861,514 -6.0 Total Private Construction¹ 491,755 490,479 0.3 555,825 -11.5 Residential 246,784 244,961 0.7 257,046 -4.0 New single family 107,092 106,410 0.6 110,380 -3.0 New multi-family 14,029 13,616 3.0 20,031 -30.0 Nonresidential 563,441 561,725 0.3 604,468 -6.8 Lodging 9,683 9,827 -1.5 18,748 -48.4 Office 36,508 35,835 1.9 45,006 -18.9 Commercial 39,089 39,356 -0.7 45,993 -15.0 Health care 41,129 40,666 1.1 42,062 -2.2 Educational 86,546 85,529 1.2 93,505 -7.4 Religious 5,490 5,317 3.3 5,660 -3.0 Public safety 11,522 11,484 0.3 13,148 -12.4 Amusement and recreation 18,536 18,061 2.6 16,689 11.1 Transportation 38,683 38,425 0.7 38,840 -0.4 Communication 17,673 18,304 -3.4 19,577 -9.7 Power 85,726 85,054 0.8 84,518 1.4 Highway and street 86,931 87,788 -1.0 81,370 6.8 Sewage and waste disposal 26,857 27,180 -1.2 24,798 8.3 Water supply 16,693 16,062 3.9 15,982 4.4 Conservation and development 7,944 7,486 6.1 5,855 35.7 Manufacturing 34,433 35,351 -2.6 52,719 -34.7 Total Public Construction² 318,470 316,207 0.7 305,688 4.2 Residential 11,114 10,829 2.6 8,066 37.8 Office 13,919 12,854 8.3 15,130 -8.0 Commercial 3,236 3,399 -4.8 3,821 -15.3 Health care 10,286 10,058 2.3 9,261 11.1 Educational 73,431 72,728 1.0 78,670 -6.7 Public safety 11,381 11,335 0.4 12,632 -9.9 Amusement and recreation 11,510 11,511 0.0 10,572 8.9 Transportation 30,282 29,915 1.2 30,140 0.5 Power 14,760 14,716 0.3 9,485 55.6 Highway and street 86,823 87,679 -1.0 81,245 6.9 Sewage and waste disposal 26,270 26,716 -1.7 24,468 7.4 Water supply 16,058 15,399 4.3 15,617 2.8 Conservation and development 7,926 7,470 6.1 5,811 36.4

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.