The souring economy clipped spending on residential construction projects in September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $344.4 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today.
At that rate, spending on private and public residential projects was down 1.3 percent from August ($348.8 billion) and 27.1 percent from a year ago ($472.4 billion). This rate is a projection of a monthly spending total over a 12-month period, adjusted to account for typical seasonal fluctuations in construction activity.
By itself, private residential construction spending registered an annual rate in September of $336.5 billion, down 1.3 percent from $340.8 billion in August and down 27.7 percent from $465.1 billion a year ago.
Total construction spending on public and private construction projects — both residential and nonresidential — dipped to a rate of $1.06 trillion in September, down 0.3 percent from August and off 6.6 percent from the September 2007 rate, according to the report. Total spending for the first nine months of the year was also down 6.2 percent compared to the same period in 2007.
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