Spending on construction projects fell 0.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.122 trillion in February as private construction decreased 0.5%, and public construction grew 0.4%, according to Commerce Department figures released yesterday.
The overall decrease, which was smaller than the 1.1% decrease projected by IFR Markets, followed a revised January decrease of 1.0% to a level of $1.125 trillion, originally reported as a 1.7% drop to $1.121 trillion.
Spending on total private construction slid 0.5% to $826.6 billion in February, compared with a 1.5% decrease in Janaury to $831.2 billion. Total private construction was down 7.1% from February 2007.
Construction of new single-family homes fell 5.7% in the month, while multifamily construction dropped 0.3%.