Construction spending in September was largely unchanged from where it was in August.  The U.S. Census Bureau said that private and public sector spending during the month was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.330 trillion, not statistically different from the 1.329.0 billion the previous month.  The figure does represent a gain of 7.2 percent from September 2017 spending of $1.240.4 trillion.

On a non-seasonally adjusted basis total spending during the month was $119.7 billion, down from $123.3 billion in August.  In 2018 through September a total of $982.9 billion has been spent, a 5.5 percent increase over the first nine months of 2017.

Privately funded construction in September was at an annual rate of $1.020 trillion, up 0.3 percent from August and 6.1 percent more than in September 2017. Non-adjusted spending from the private sector totaled $89.5 billion for the month and has reached $755.5 billion for the year-to-date (YTD) through September. This is 5.1 percent more than the $718.8 billion spent over the same period last year

Residential spending increased by 0.6 from August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $556.4 billion which was 5.1 percent more than was spent a year earlier.  Expenditures for single-family construction dipped 0.8 percent for the month but remained 3.1 percent ahead year-over-year. The seasonally adjusted rate for the month was $283.2 billion.

Multifamily construction was responsible for the slim gains in overall residential spending. The sector was up by 8.7 percent from August to an annualized $64.2 billion which puts it ahead by 7.5 percent year-over-year.

On a non-adjusted basis there was  $49.5 billion spent on residential construction during the month, $26.23 billion of it on single-family homes. Residential spending is up on a YTD basis by 6.4 percent from last year to a total of $417.1 billion and aggregated single family spending is ahead of the previous year by 7.3 percent to $214.3 billion.

Despite the strong August showing, multifamily spending in the private sector was flat on a YTD basis.  Spending in the first nine months of both 2017 and 2008 was approximately $44.9 billion.

Spending in the public sector was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $309.1 billion, down 0.9 percent from August, but ahead of September 2017 by 11.0 percent.  On a YTD basis spending is up 7.0 percent with $227.4 billion in construction put in place.

Publicly funded residential construction continues to decline; a non-adjusted $528 million was spent in September and the total has declined each month since at least May.  YTD spending is down 3.1 percent from last year.