Construction spending edged up 0.1 percent from April to May, though private homebuilding outlays came down slightly.
The Commerce Department [1] reported Tuesday that construction spending during May [2] was at an estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate of $956.1 billion, just up from April's revised estimate of $955.1 billion and 6.6 percent higher than the May 2013 estimate of $896.6 billion.
During 2014's first five months, the government estimates construction spending came to $358.1 billion, up 8.2 percent from the same time last year.
Spending on residential projects in May was at a pace of slightly less than $360 billion, falling more than $5 billion (1.4 percent) from April. Private residential construction accounted for $354.8 billion of that figure.
On the private side, spending was down from April in both single- and multifamily construction. Outlays on single-family homebuilding were down 1.4 percent to $187.6 billion, while spending on multifamily projects dipped 0.6 percent to $40.5 billion.
The data lines up with the most recent report of housing starts [3] from the Census, which showed single-family numbers declining 6 percent from April.
At the same time, spending on public residential projects edged up 1.8 percent to $5.2 billion.