The Census Bureau recently released numbers detailing the dismal state of construction spending nationwide. While these numbers are pretty boring and generally overlooked, they're a good harbinger of things to come in the economy -- especially as real estate in all shapes and sizes continues to dominate the demise of banks. Let's have a look:
|
Sector |
Sept. 2008 |
Aug. 2008 |
July 2008 |
Sept. 2007 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Residential |
$344,447
|
$348,835
|
$342,490
|
$472,384
|
|
Non-Residential |
$715,633
|
$714,688
|
$717,521
|
$662,477
|
|
Total |
$1,060,079
|
$1,063,523
|
$1,060,011
|
$1,134,860
|
All numbers annualized and seasonally adjusted, in millions.
Yawn ... things are fairly unchanged since August, which is probably a good thing. In these chaotic markets, no news is usually good news.
September's residential construction numbers are a good 27% below where they were last year, but that's to be expected. After a year of homebuilders like Beazer Homes
Now the good news
On the non-residential front, things aren't quite as pitiful. In fact, some sectors are downright flourishing. Check out the one-year growth in these non-residential construction sectors:
|
Sector |
1-Year Growth |
|---|---|
|
Manufacturing |
54% |
|
Lodging |
26.1% |
|
Power |
25.9% |
|
Public Safety |
21.2% |
|
Water Supply |
13% |
|
Office |
12.1% |
The surge in manufacturing construction spending was likely fueled by a weak dollar, making the few things we manage to manufacture here at home relatively cheap to foreign nations, thus increasing demand. This also gives multinationals like Coca-Cola
What's next?
Remember, these recent numbers reflect activity through September ... before the massive financial crash and credit freeze we experienced in October. It'll be interesting to see the progress of next month's numbers, when the real effect of banks' October woes may begin to trickle down and threaten existing projects, throwing yet another wrench into an already oppressed market.
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