Construction Spending Down 0.6% in January

Total construction spending dropped 0.6% in January. This is the net of the still slowly declining trend in overall construction spending, a second month of unseasonably bad construction weather and the usual monthly flip-flop in residential remodeling spending, this time a large increase. Currently the underlying declining trend is likely less than 0.6%/month, probably 0.3-0.5%/month. Later data revisions may restore this trend to the reported data for the last few months, says Reed Construction Data chief economist Jim Haughey.