Construction Spending Ticked Up 0.2% in June

Construction spending rose by a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 0.2% in June, the Commerce Department reported Monday, driven up by the increase in business-related building.

June’s number was down from a revised 0.3% increase rate in May. The dollar value of June construction was the highest since December 2010.

Economists polled by Thomson Reuters had a median estimate 0.6%.

Total private construction was reported up 0.8% to its highest level since November 2010.

Private business-related construction rose at a 1.8% annual rate after a revised 1.2% in May. Nonresidential construction was also at the highest rate since December 2010.

Private residential construction was reported down 0.3% overall after a revised decline of 0.8% in May. In the components broken out by the Commerce Department, new single-family homebuilding rose 0.3% while the highly variable multifamily housing construction rate fell 2.8%. Since June of last year, however, the two were virtually the same, down 10.6 for single family and 10.4 for multifamily housing.

Government construction fell 0.7% in June. State and local building was down 0.6% and federal construction fell 2.2%.

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