September 2021 P.I.P Construction Spending – Census Bureau

Put-in-place construction spending for September 2021 shows a -0.5 decrease from last month but a large 7.8% increase from September of 2020. Overall, new residential construction (not including renovations) accounts for 1/3rd of all construction spending. Another 1/3rd is from private construction spending, including renovations. The last 1/3rd is public construction spending + spending on repairs/renovations. 

Private nonresidential construction spending has fallen -0.6% from last month and -0.5% from last year. Commercial and Manufacturing, and Health Care are the only private verticals which have seen an increase in spending over the past 12 months. Government spending on construction has increased in Water Supply, Sewage & Waste, Highway & Street, and a relatively large increase in spending on Power. All other verticals, both private and public, have seen decreases over the past year. Construction spending on public safety has seen the biggest decrease at -38.5% over the past year, followed closely behind by Office spending, -33.8%. Spending on Religious construction as well as Conservation and Development construction have seen large decreases but remain very small portions of the overall spend.