Construction spending rose 1.5 percent in January on the heels of a 3.3 percent increase in December, the Commerce Department reported.
January’s annual rate of $1.14 billion was the highest since October 2007, and 10.4 percent above the rate of January 2015.
Contributing significantly to the spending increase were state and local government projects, where spending was up 4.5 percent from December. Milder-than-normal weather figured into the trend.
Residential-construction spending was flat in January compared to December, at $433.2 billion, but was 7.6 percent higher than January 2015. Nonresidential spending rose 2.5 percent from December, to $398.2 billion, but was up a solid 12.3 percent from a year earlier.
Total private-sector construction spending was up just 0.5 percent from December, at $831,405 billion, but that was 9.5 percent above the rate in January 2015. Total public-sector construction spending rose 4.5 percent, to an annual rate of $309.4 billion. That was 13 percent above the rate a year earlier.
