• Private construction increases steadily.

• Residential building strengthens, but nonresidential is little changed.

• Public sector construction weakens.

The value of construction put-in-place rose 0.2% (9.0% y/y) during December following a 0.6% November gain, revised from 0.4%. A 0.7% December rise had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. During all of 2021, the value of construction rose 8.2%, the strongest increase since 2015.

Private construction increased 0.7% (12.7% y/y) in December after a 0.8% November gain. Residential construction strengthened 1.1% (15.0% y/y) after a 0.7% November rise. Single-family building increased 2.1% (16.3% y/y), about the same as in November. Multi-family building rose 0.4% (9.1% y/y) and reversed November's 0.3% decline. Home improvement expenditures eased 0.1% (+15.2% y/y) in December after declining 0.8% in November.

Nonresidential private construction eased slightly (+9.1% y/y) in December after firm gains in each of the prior five months. Educational construction rose 0.8% (1.7% y/y) following four consecutive months of strong increase. Office building rose 0.7% (4.6% y/y) about the same as in November. Power building improved 0.1% (4.9% y/y) after holding steady in November. Transportation spending was little changed (-1.9% y/y) following a 5.4% surge. To the downside, communication construction fell 0.4% (-0.2% y/y) after a 0.1% rise and heath care construction fell 0.5% (+6.6% y/y) after a 0.2% increase. Manufacturing construction weakened 1.9% (+30.4% y/y) following four months of strong increase.

The value of public construction fell 1.6% (-2.9% y/y) in December after holding steady in November. Health care building declined 4.7% (+7.9% y/y) following a 2.3% increase. Power construction fell 0.7% (+47.7% y/y) following two months of strong increase. Residential construction declined 1.2% (-3.4% y/y) and added to November's 3.2% decline. Spending on educational buildings weakened 1.4% (-8.5% y/y) after rising 0.4% in November. Transportation building fell 3.0% (-6.3% y/y) after weakening 0.5% in November. Spending on highways and streets edged 0.1% higher (0.9% y/y) after falling 0.6% in November.

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.