The value of construction put-in-place decreased 0.9% m/m (-0.8% y/y) in March following a 0.7% m/m increase (revised down from +1.0%) in February. The Action Economics Forecast Survey had expected a 0.1% m/m rise. The y/y decline in March followed one in February. These are the first y/y declines since July 2011. For all of the first quarter, total construction spending increased 0.5% q/q, in contrast to declines in both Q3 and Q4 last year. The modest rise in 2019 Q1 was more than accounted for by public construction, which rose 6.0% q/q (its largest quarterly gain since 2015 Q2). Private construction fell 1.1% q/q in Q1, its third consecutive quarterly decline.

Both private and public construction spending declined in March with private spending slipping 0.7% m/m (-3.6% y/y) and public spending falling a more pronounced 1.3% m/m (+8.6% y/y).

The fall in private spending was concentrated in weaker residential construction (-1.8% m/m, -8.4% y/y), particularly construction of single-family homes (-1.5% m/m). The value of residential improvements fell sharply, posting a 3.1% m/m decline (-14.1% y/y) in March. Private nonresidential construction edged up 0.5% m/m in March (+2.1% y/y) with monthly gains widely spread across sectors, led by a 2.5% m/m (10.9% y/y) increase in manufacturing construction.

The weakness in public construction was led by the two major categories that account for more than 55% of total public construction spending—educational construction and construction of highways and streets. Education construction fell 1.5% m/m (+5.8% y/y) in March for its first decline in three months. Construction of highways and streets plummeted 1.9% m/m (+13.2% y/y) in March but this was after having jumped up 11.4% m/m in January and 8.9% m/m in February. For all of the first quarter, construction of highways and streets soared 15.1% q/q.

The construction spending figures, some of which date back to 1946, are in Haver's USECON database. The expectations reading can be found in the AS1REPNA database.