The total value of construction put in place rose 0.4% in February. Consensus expectations had been for a 0.6% gain. Earlier month's figures were little revised.

Private residential building activity rose 0.7% paced by a 1.4% (13.7% y/y) jump in new single family building.

Nonresidential building slipped 1.2% after the strong gain in January as commercial building fell 3.2% (+7.1% y/y). Office building rose 1.6% (3.6% y/y) but manufacturing building fell 2.4% (+28.5% y/y).

Public construction rose 1.1%. Spending on highways & streets, nearly one third of the value of public construction spending, rose 2.5% (21.4% y/y).

These more detailed categories represent the Census Bureau’s reclassification of construction activity into end-use groups. Finer detail is available for many of the categories; for instance, commercial construction is shown for Automotive sales and parking facilities, drugstores, building supply stores, and both commercial warehouses and mini-storage facilities. Note that start dates vary for some seasonally adjusted line items in 2000 and 2002 and that constant-dollar data are no longer computed.