Value of New Construction Drops -1.7% in March to $1,284.7 Billion, Up +5.5% YOY

Construction spending during March 2018 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,284.7 billion, -1.7% below the revised February estimate of $1,306.4 billion. The March figure is +3.6% above the March 2017 estimate of $1,239.6 billion. During the first three months of this year, construction spending amounted to $279 billion, +5.5% above the $264.5 billion for the same period in 2017.

Private construction. Spending on private construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $987.5 billion, -2.1% below the revised February estimate of $1,009.1 billion. Residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $536.8 billion in March, -3.5% percent below the revised February estimate of $556.5 billion. Nonresidential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $450.7 billion in March, -0.4% below the revised February estimate of $452.5 billion. Health-care construction showed some growth, with a 2.1% year-over-year boost over last March to $30.7 billion.

Public construction. In March, the estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of public construction spending was $297.2 billion, nearly the same the revised February estimate of $297.3 billion. Educational construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $73.1 billion, -0.1% below the revised February estimate of $73.2 billion. Interestingly, public health-care construction showed some year-over-year growth, as did private health care construction. Construction of public health-care facilities was up +11.8% to $10.6 billion.