Today, the U.S. Census Bureau released their latest read of construction spending showing improvement from near-cycle low levels of spending in January for residential construction while indicating a slight pullback for total non-residential spending.On a month-to-month basis, total residential spending increased 1.78% from December and rose 6.73% above the level seen in January 2011 while remaining a whopping 62.50% below the peak level seen in 2006.
Single family construction spending increased 2.46% since December and rose 5.48% since January 2011 but remained a whopping 75.78% below it's peak in 2006.
Non-residential construction spending declined 1.54% since December but climbed a whopping 16.60% above the level seen in January 2011 but remained a whopping 33.14% below the peak level reached in October 2008.
The following charts (click for larger dynamic versions) show private residential construction spending, private residential single family construction spending and private non-residential construction spending broken out and plotted since 1993 along with the year-over-year, month-to-month and peak percent change to each since 1994 and 2000 – 2005.