Department of Commerce Says March Value of New Construction Up 1.4 Percent

The U.S. Department of Commerce said construction spending during March 2011 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $768.9 billion, 1.4 percent above the revised February estimate of $758.6 billion. The March figure is 6.7 percent below the March 2010 estimate of $824 billion. During the first 3 months of this year, construction spending amounted to $161.2 billion, 7.8 percent below the $174.8 billion for the same period in 2010.

Private construction

Spending on private construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $476.1 billion, 2.2 percent above the revised February estimate of $466 billion. Residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $229.1 billion in March, 2.6 percent above the revised February estimate of $223.2 billion. Private nonresidential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $247 billion in March, 1.8 percent above the revised February estimate of $242.7 billion. A 2.4 percent increase in private residential construction to $237.8 billion was a major factor for the increase.

Public construction

In March, the Department of Commerce said estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of public construction spending was $292.8 billion, 0.1 percent above the revised February estimate of $292.6 billion. Educational construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $68.5 billion, 0.5 percent above the revised February estimate of $68.1 billion. Highway construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $82.9 billion, 0.6 percent above the revised February estimate of $82.4 billion.

Value Of New Construction Put In Place — March 2011

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

Mar '11₁ Feb '11₂ Mo. % Change Mar '10 YTY % Change Total Construction 768.9 758.6 1.4 824.0 -6.7 Total Private Construction¹ 476.1 466.0 2.2 524.4 -9.2 Residential 237.8 232.2 2.4 258.3 -8 New single family 105.9 107.0 -1 116.9 -9.4 New multi-family 12.5 12.8 -2.2 14.4 -13.2 Nonresidential 531.1 526.4 0.9 565.7 -6.1 Lodging 8.4 8.0 6.1 12.2 -31 Office 34.1 33.5 1.7 39.5 -13.7 Commercial 39.1 39.3 -0.5 41.8 -6.5 Health care 39.4 38.5 2.4 40.7 -3.2 Educational 80.8 80.1 0.9 89.0 -9.2 Religious 4.5 4.5 1.7 5.7 -20.1 Public safety 10.8 10.7 0.7 13.1 -17.6 Amusement and recreation 15.5 15.5 -0.2 16.1 -3.4 Transportation 39.6 39.5 0.2 42.6 -7.1 Communication 17.4 17.8 -2.5 16.6 4.7 Power 81.6 80.2 1.8 78.5 3.9 Electric 56.1 54.1 3.7 53.4 4.9 Highway and street 83.0 82.5 0.6 79.1 4.9 Manufacturing 32.8 31.1 5.2 45.5 -28 Total Public Construction² 292.8 292.6 0.1 299.6 -2.3 Residential 8.7 9.0 -3 9.0 -2.9 Office 12.0 11.7 2.1 13.5 -10.9 Commercial 3.2 3.2 -0.8 2.7 15.8 Health care 10.3 10.0 3.0 9.2 12.2 Educational 68.5 68.1 0.5 74.0 -7.5 Public safety 10.7 10.6 0.3 12.6 -15.6 Amusement and recreation 10.3 10.3 0.2 9.7 6.4 Transportation 30.5 29.8 2.3 34.4 -11.1 Power 11.5 12.0 -4.6 10.2 12.6

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.