Edge Real Estate

By Jackson Griffin

HousingWire.com reported figures by the U.S. Census Bureau stating that residential construction spending boosted up 3.2 percent over September with a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $247.3 billion.

The annual rate increased as well, this time 0.6 percent over residential spending last year. It is still markedly lower than the March 2006 peak of $676.4 billion.

Non-seasonably adjusted residential spending rose to a total of $23.5 billion from September’s $21.6 billion figure. The year-to-date spending level saw a decrease of 2.5 percent from from last year’s $205.8 billion.

Construction of public residential properties teetered off in October by 2 percent from September and 24 percent from a year ago. Public residential spending totaled $8.3 billion. These figures include government-owned housing developments.

Construction as a whole rose by 0.8 percent over September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $798.5 billion. It declined by 0.4 percent from a $802 billion total in October 2010.

New single-family home sales increased 1.3 percent in October from the previous month and by 8.9 percent from last year. According to the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the seasonally adjusted annual rate was 307,000.

Also noted by the two agencies was that housing starts declined by 0.3 percent to an annual rate of 628,000 in October. However, that number represents a 16.5 percent increase from last year.

The two agencies said earlier this month that housing starts, however, fell 0.3 percent to an annual rate of 628,000 in October, but increased 16.5 percent from a year earlier.

Read more: October Residential Construction Spending Increases | REALTOR.com® Blogs