National + Apartments | March 2, 2021

Construction Spending Tops Annualized $1.5T in January

U.S. construction spending in January reached a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.521 trillion, the highest monthly tally since the Census Bureau began keeping track in 2002. Driven by single-family homebuilding, the January figure is 5.8 % above the year-ago period.

January also posted a month-over-month increase of 1.7%. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a monthly increase of 0.8%.

Residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $713 billion in January, 2.5% above the revised December estimate of $695.7 billion. Nonresidential construction was an annualized $447 billion in January, 0.4% above December.

Public construction spending was an annualized $361.5 billion, 1.7% above the December estimate. Educational construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $89.9 billion, down 0.1% below the revised December estimate of $90 billion.

Highway construction spending was an annualized $107.8 billion, 5.8% above the revised December estimate of $101.9 billion.

Connect

Inside The Story

About Paul Bubny

Paul Bubny serves as Senior Content Director for Connect Commercial Real Estate, a role to which he brings 13-plus years’ experience covering the commercial real estate industry and 30-plus years in business-to-business journalism. In this capacity, he oversees daily operations while also reporting on both local/regional markets and national trends, covering individual transactions across all property types, as well as delving into broader subject matter. He produces 15-20 daily news stories per day and works with the Connect team and clients to develop longer-form content, ranging from Q&As to thought-leadership pieces. Prior to joining Connect, Paul was Managing Editor for both Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com at American Lawyer Media, where he oversaw operations at both publications while also producing daily news and feature-length articles. His tenure in B2B publishing stretches back into the print era, and he has served as Editor in Chief on four national trade publications. Since 1999, Paul has volunteered as the newsletter editor of passenger rail advocacy groups (one national, one local).