The dollar value of new construction activity on residential, non-residential, and public projects. Data are available in nominal and real (inflation-adjusted) dollars. Why Investors Care
| Released on 4/1/08 For Feb 2008 | ||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
Highlights
Construction spending in February continued downward but was much better than expected. Construction outlays posted a 0.3 percent drop, following a 1.0 percent fall in January. The decline in the latest month was not as bad as the market forecast for a 1.1 percent fall. Also, January's decline was revised up substantially from the initial estimate of a 1.7 percent fall. February's decrease in construction spending was led by a 0.9 percent decline in private residential outlays with private nonresidential construction slipping 0.1 percent. However, public outlays advanced 0.4 percent in the latest month.
Within private residential outlays, for the latest month single-family construction fell 5.7 percent while multifamily declined 0.3 percent.
On a year-on-year basis, overall construction outlays were down 3.5 percent in February, compared to down 3.1 percent the month before.
Overall, the markets were pleasantly surprised by today's numbers. Equities bumped up as did Treasury rates with assistance also from a better-than-expected ISM manufacturing report. Nonetheless, housing is still declining and nonresidential construction is softening. The good news is merely that they are not as bad as expected.
Construction spending appears to be weakening more broadly than just in housing as construction outlays in January fell further and across all key categories. Until recently nonresidential and public outlays have been posting healthy gains and offsetting the decline in residential construction spending. Construction outlays fell for the fourth consecutive month with a 1.7 percent drop in January. January's fall was led by a 3.0 percent drop in private residential outlays. Public outlays and private nonresidential outlays also declined by 0.2 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively.
Construction spending Consensus Forecast for February 08: -1.1 percent
Range: -1.5 to -0.6 percent
![[Chart]](chart.gif)
|
Over the last year, a decline in residential outlays has pulled down year-on-year growth for overall construction outlays. Nonresidential and public outlays are positive with nonresidential actually strong. |
| 2008 Release Schedule | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
powered by
![[Econoday]](../../../../../../../../../images/logo.gif){kind=logo}