Overall construction spending increased slightly in March the Census Bureau said today.  Combined public and private construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $942.5 billion, 0.2 percent above the revised February estimate of $940.8 billion and 8.4 percent above the March 2013 estimate of $869.2 billion.  Economists surveyed by Reuters were expecting a gain of 0.5 percent.  Construction spending in the first quarter totaled $196.6 billion an 8.3 percent increase over the same period in 2013 when spending was estimated at $181.6 billion.

All of the small improvement in spending was accounted for by the private sector where spending rose 0.5 percent from February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $679.6 billion from $676.3 billion in February.  The March number was a 12.5 percent increase from a year earlier when private sector spending was estimated at $604.02 billion. Year-to-date (first quarter) spending was also 12.5 percent higher than in March 2013, $145.19 billion to $129.07 billion.

On a non-seasonally adjusted basis private residential construction spending totaled $27.11 billion in March compared to $23.31 billion in February and $23.40 billion in March 2013.  Single family construction accounted for $14.38 billion of the total and multi-family expenditures for $3.18 billion

Private residential construction spending was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $369.8 billion in March, 0.8 percent above the revised February estimate of $367.0 billion and was 16.0 percent higher than one year ago when residential spending was at a rate of 318.73 billion.  Year-to-date residential spending was up 16.7 percent from a year earlier to a non-seasonally adjusted $74.67 billion compared to $63.98 billion.

Single-family residential construction was $185.66 billion, 13.2 percent higher than a year earlier and 0.2 percent higher than in February. Construction in residential buildings of five or more units was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $39.15 billion and was 4.4 percent higher than in February and 32.5 percent above expenditures at the same time in 2013.

Public Sector construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $262.92 billion, down 0.6 percent from February and 0.8 percent from March 2013.  Residential construction totaled $4.7 billion and was down 6.6 percent month-over-month and 26.7 percent from one year ago.