by Mike ‘Mish’ Shedlock
Mish Talk
Construction spending jumped 1.5 percent, far ahead the Econoday Economists’ Consensus expectation of 0.5 percent. The surge was in government spending though, not housing.
Highlights
Construction spending rose a strong 1.5 percent in January in strength, however, that does not include housing. A one-month surge in highway & street spending skewed the headline higher as did gains for manufacturing and on Federal construction projects.
The residential component was unchanged in the month as a 0.2 percent slip in single-family homes offset another jump in the much smaller multi-family subcomponent which rose 2.6 percent in the month. Demand on the multi-family side, reflecting strength in rental prices, has been very strong with year-on-year spending up 30.4 percent vs 6.6 percent for single-family homes. Together, residential spending is up a year-on-year 7.7 percent.