Reported yesterday, the value of construction spending rose 0.4% during April following a 0.1% uptick in March, revised down from a 1.4% gain reported last month. Consensus expectations as indicated by Action Economics called for a 0.3% monthly gain.

The rise in construction last month was led by a 1.7% gain in private sector building. That increase reflected a 3.1% jump in residential building but the prior month was revised down sharply. Volatility in improvements has been most extreme. First off, it rose 7.6% in April (-12.0% y/y) but the March decline of 0.1% was revised down from a 6.9% rise reported initially. Single-family construction fell 1.0% in April (-12.8% y/y) after similar declines during the prior two months. Multi-family building slipped 0.1% (-7.6% y/y).

Nonresidential construction activity ticked up 0.5% in April led by a 3.9% gain in education (-6.1% y/y), a 2.7% (-16.2% y/y) rise in amusements & recreation and a 0.8% rise in health care (-1.5% y/y). Commercial building fell 1.3% (-9.2% y/y).

Public construction activity fell 1.9% (-7.5% y/y), the seventh consecutive down month. Highways and streets building fell 1.6% (-5.6% y/y).

The construction put-in-place figures are available in Haver's USECON database. The expectations figure is contained in Haver's AS1REPNA database.