The nation’s home builders enjoyed their best year in three years according to the U.S. Census Bureau with private single-family home construction increasing by nearly twenty percent from the previous year while multi-family construction was up by over forty percent from 2011 to 2012.
Spending for private residential construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $308.2 billion in December, up 2.2 percent from a revised estimate of $307.7 billion in November.
Total monthly spending by builders for both residential and non-residential private construction was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $614.9 billion, up 2.0 percent from the revised estimate of $602.9 billion in November.
Builders spent 23.6 percent more on private residential construction in December than they did a year ago when $249.4 billion was spent, while the total amount builders spent for all private construction was 15.0 percent higher than the $534.6 billion spent in December of last year.
Construction spending for new private single-family homes increased 0.8 percent from November to December with builders spending a seasonally adjusted $144.8 billion in December compared to $143.7 billion in November.
Single-family home construction spending was 28.3 percent higher than in December of 2011, when builders spent $112.9 billion on building new single-family homes.
Multi-family private construction spending was 6.2 percent higher than in November, climbing to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $25.8 billion. In November, builders spent just under $24.3 billion on multi-family construction.
Multi-family construction spending was 57.4 percent higher than in December of last year, when builders spent a seasonally adjusted $16.4 billion on multi-family dwellings.
The remainder of the private residential construction spending in December, $137.6 billion, was money spent for any type of construction to an existing structure ranging from remodeling to additions to swimming pools to replacement of major systems such as HVAC systems. This was slightly higher the $133.7 billion spent in November and up from the $120.1 billion spent in December of 2011.
Compared to 2011, private residential construction was 16.8 percent higher in 2012 with new single family construction 19.4 percent higher than the previous year and multi-family construction was 44.4 percent higher from 2011 to 2012.
Tags: residential construction spending, single-family homes, multi-family dwellings, seasonally adjusted annual rate, remodeling, additions
Source:
Census Bureau
Reported by Shirley Allen
