Residential real estate construction spending grows 12%

Annual spending rate remains above $1 trillion
Inman News
Construction spending during March 2005 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.05 trillion, or about 0.5 percent above the revised February estimate, the U.S. Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce announced today.
The March figure is about 8 percent above the March 2004 estimate of $973.9 billion. The seasonally adjusted annual rate projects a monthly total over a 12-month period.

During the first 3 months of this year, total construction spending amounted to $222.4 billion, or about 9.3 percent above the $203.5 billion for the same period in 2004.

Spending on private construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $815.5 billion, about 0.5 percent above the revised February estimate of $811.3 billion. Residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $585.3 billion in March, about 0.3 percent above the revised February estimate of $583.6 billion and up about 12.1 percent from March 2004. Nonresidential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $230.3 billion in March, about 1.1 percent above the revised February estimate of $227.7 billion and up about 6.3 percent from March 2004.

Month-to-month changes in seasonally adjusted statistics often show movement that may be irregular, the Census Bureau reported. It may take two months to establish an underlying trend for total construction and as long as eight months for specific categories of construction. The statistics are estimated from several sources and surveys and are subject to sampling variability as well as non-sampling error including bias and variance from response, non-reporting, and under-coverage.

Statistics for the current month are preliminary estimates subject to revision in following months as additional data become available. The average absolute percent changes from preliminary estimate to first revision for the major seasonally adjusted components are as follows: total construction, 0.8 percent; private construction, 0.7 percent; and public construction, 1.4 percent.