January Value of New Construction Data Comes in Strong, Up +6.8% YOY

Construction spending during January 2020 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,369.2 billion, +1.8% above the revised December estimate of $1,345.5 billion. The January figure is +6.8% above the January 2019 estimate of $1,282.5 billion, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Private construction. Spending on private construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,022.7 billion, +1.5% above the revised December estimate of $1,007.6 billion. Residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $554.8 billion in January, +2.1% above the revised December estimate of $543.6 billion.

Nonresidential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $468 billion in January, +0.8% above the revised December estimate of $464.1 billion. At $84.1 billion, private commercial construction was particularly healthy, up +1.4% over Dec. 2019 and up +5.5% over Dec. 2018.

Construction of private electric power plants was also up strong in January, increasing +2.1% over Dec. 2019 to $76.9 billion, a +11.3% YOY increase.

Public construction. In January, the estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of public construction spending was $346.5 billion, +2.6% above the revised December estimate of $337.8 billion. Educational construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $81.5 billion, +0.7% above the revised December estimate of $80.9 billion. Public health care was soft in January, down -3.2% to $8.7 billion from Dec. 2018.