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 of 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 fall of 0.8% in May. In the components broken out by the Commerce Department, new single family homebuilding rose 0.3% and the highly variable multi-family 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 multi-family housing.
Government construction fell 0.7% in June. State and local building was down 0.6% and federal construction down 2.2%.
