Content about U.S. Department of Commerce

The million-starts milestone moved a step away from the home-building industry. But it remains well in sight, as data released Wednesday showed an 8.5% decline in the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts.

The January figure was 890,000, down from an upwardly revised December rate of 973,000, according to the new residential construction data released by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Compared with a year ago, the rate of total housing starts is up 23.6%. 

Sales of new homes in May rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 369,000, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Commerce. The May figure is up 7.6% over April and marks an increase of 19.8% above May 2011.

The May figure was the highest in two years (since April 2010) and was aided by factors including low interest rates, housing affordability and warm weather. Most analysts had expected the May rate to fall short of 350,000. 

The latest tally from the U.S. Department of Commerce showed housing starts in August at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 571,000.

The disappointing August rate -- analysts were expecting a pace of about 590,000 -- was 5% below July's downwardly revised figure, and 5.8% below the August 2010 rate of 606,000.

Numbers released on Monday from the U.S. Department of Commerce announced that construction spending during March 2011 was estimated at $768.9 billion, a 1.4% increase above February’s estimate of $758.6 billion. The March figure is 6.7% below the March 2010 estimate of $824.0 billion.

During the first three months of this year, construction spending amounted to $161.2 billion, 7.8% below the $174.8 billion from the same quarter in 2010. 

Although overall construction spending didn’t change much between December and January, residential construction rose by 5.3%, to $245.6 billion, in January 2011, according to figures just released by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Spending on non-residential construction in January hit $244.4 billion, dipping 6.9% below December 2010’s figure. Taken together, spending on private construction was essentially flat -- 1.2% in month-over-month figures.