Information from AGCA news release
Construction spending nationwide hit a four-year high of $901 billion in July, largely spurred by growth in new-home and multifamily building, according to a report Tuesday by the Associated General Contractors of America.
The spending figure for July was the highest mark since June 2009 and was up 5.2 percent year-over-year and about one-half percent from the previous month, the report said.
“The patterns seen earlier this year reappeared in July, with strong year-over-year gains in single- and multifamily building, a range of results for private nonresidential categories, and deepening downturns in most public segments,” Ken Simonson, the ACGA’s chief economist, said in the report. “These trends are likely to hold for the remainder of 2013.”
Multifamily construction spending posted a whopping 39 percent year-over-year spike, the biggest of any category, while single-family spending posted a 29 percent jump during the same period, the report said.
Private-sector commercial spending was up overall by 2 percent from a year ago, but results of its subcategories varied widely. For instance, lodging jumped a notable 33 percent year-over-year and industrial spending was up 11 percent. Private health care and communication construction, on the other hand, was down 3 percent and 12 percent, respectively.
Spending backed by public construction projects took a 3.7 percent dip, with the educational facilities taking the biggest drop of any public subcategory of 12 percent year over year, the report said.
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