Both publicly and privately funded construction dipped slightly in January from February levels the Census Bureau said today, although both total construction and the publicly funded segment did remain above January 2014 levels.  Construction put in place in all categories during the month was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $971.4 billion, 1.1 percent lower than the estimated $982.0 billion spent in December.  The number was 1.8 percent higher than the January 2014 estimate of $954.6 billion.

On a non-seasonally adjusted basis spending in January was estimated at $67.3 billion compared to 76.0 billion in December and 66.5 billion a year earlier.  This was an annual increase of 1.2 percent.

Privately funded construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 697.6 billion in January compared to $700.9 billion in December, a drop of 0.5 percent.  The monthly total, however, was 0.5 percent above the estimated at $694.1 billion of construction put in place in January 2014.

On a non-adjusted basis $50.1 billion was spent on all private construction during the month, down from $55.6 billion in December but an increase of 0.4 percent from a year earlier.

Private residential construction put in place during the month was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $351.7 billion, up 0.6 percent from December's pace of $349.5 billion but 3.4 percent below the estimate in January 2014.  The pace of single-family residential construction was up 0.6 percent month over month to 204.9 billion and 9.7 percent higher than a year earlier.  Multi-family construction rose 1.9 percent from December to $48.8 billion which was nearly 30 percent above the estimate in January 2014.

On a non-adjusted basis there was $23.9 billion in residential construction during the month compared to $25.6 billion in December and 24.7 billion in January 2014, an annual decrease of 3.4 percent.  Single family construction spending totaled $14.1 billion for the month, a 10.3 percent annual increase while multi-family construction, at $3.7 billion, was up 28.6 from the previous January.

Publicly funded construction totaled $273.8 billion on a seasonally adjusted annual basis, down 2.6 percent from December but 5.1 percent higher than a year earlier.  Residential construction is estimated at $5.5 billion, down 1.7 percent month-over-month but 14.5 percent higher than in January 2014.