• Private residential construction falls for second month in last three.

• Nonresidential sector building weakens sharply.

• Public sector building drops.

Construction spending declined 0.5% (+7.8% y/y) during September after edging 0.1% higher in each of the prior two months. The August figure was revised from little change. A 0.4% increase had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey.

Total private construction declined 0.5% (+11.1% y/y) during September, the largest of three straight monthly declines. Residential construction weakened 0.4% (+19.3% y/y) after rising 0.1% in August. Single-family building fell 0.6% (+30.4% y/y) after a 0.5% decline. Multi-family construction was off 0.3% (+10.5% y/y) after slipping 0.1% in August. The value of spending on improvements eased 0.1% (8.1% y/y) after rising 1.1% in August.

Private nonresidential construction fell 0.6% in September (-0.5% y/y) following a 0.9% August drop. Power construction declined 1.2% but was unchanged y/y. Transportation construction fell 0.4% (-4.6% y/y). Lodging construction was down 0.7% (-32.8% y/y). Factory sector building fell 1.6% (4.7% y/y) in September.

The value of public construction weakened 0.7% in September (-2.4% y/y) after two roughly 1.0% increases. Commercial construction declined 3.1% (-13.1% y/y) but office construction rose 1.2% in September (-5.0% y/y). Highway & street construction fell 0.7% (7.1% y/y) and heath care construction weakened 3.6% (-2.7% y/y) in September.

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