Construction spending was largely unchanged in July according to data released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.  Spending on all public and privately funded building was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.1532 trillion, statistically unchanged from the $1.1535 trillion rate in June. 

The July rate was 1.5 percent higher than the July 2015 pace of $1.1359 trillion.  Year-to-date spending through July is estimated at $647.7 billion, 5.6 percent higher than all construction spending in the first seven months of last year.

Spending on privately funded construction overall was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $875.0 billion, up 1.0 percent from June and 4.4 percent higher than a year earlier.  Year-to-date private spending, at $489.48 billion, is up 7.5 percent from the same period in 2015.

Private residential spending was at a seasonally adjusted pace of $445.46 billion, an 0.3 percent gain from June and 1.9 percent higher than in July 2015.  New single family construction dipped 0.2 percent from the previous month to $238.14 billion but remained 1.7 percent higher than the prior July.  Multi-family construction was also down for the month by 0.6 percent at $59.77 billion but remained almost 20 percent above the pace a year earlier.

On a non-seasonally adjusted basis an estimated $41.89 billion was spent by the private sector on residential building during July and $255.56 billion was spent during the first seven months of the year.  The year to date number is up 6.6 percent from 2015.

Single family construction during the month was $22.00 billion and year to date it is $135.89 billion; the latter figure representing an 8.9 percent gain from the same period in 2015.  Multi-family construction, unadjusted, was estimated at $5.04 billion for the month and $34.40 billion thus far this year, 21.5 percent above spending last year.

Total public construction expenditures in July were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $278.19 billion with $6.278 billion of that total spent on residential construction.  Both figures are well below those a year earlier, by 7.3 percent and 6.5 percent respectively.