US construction spending fell 0.8 percent from a month earlier at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of USD 1.29 trillion in May 2019, after an upwardly revised 0.4 percent rise in the previous month and below market expectations of a 0.1 percent gain. It was the largest decline since November last year, as spending on private construction dropped 0.7 percent, after declining 1 percent in April, as investment in private residential projects fell for the fifth consecutive month to its weakest since December 2016 (-0.6 percent, the same as in April) and nonresidential structures (-0.9 percent vs -1.4 percent). Also, investment in public construction decreased 0.9 percent, after rising 4.5 percent in the prior month, of which state and local government construction projects (-0.6 percent vs 4.3 percent) and federal government projects (-5.2 percent vs 7.3 percent). Construction Spending in the United States averaged 0.44 percent from 1964 until 2019, reaching an all time high of 5.90 percent in April of 1978 and a record low of -4.80 percent in February of 1975.
Construction Spending in the United States is expected to be 0.80 percent by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Construction Spending in the United States to stand at 0.30 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the United States Construction Spending is projected to trend around 0.40 percent in 2020, according to our econometric models.