Construction Spending

 

EXPENDITURES FOR IMPROVEMENTS AND REPAIRS OF RESIDENTIAL

PROPERTIES ESTIMATED AT 226.4 BILLION IN 2007

The U.S. Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce announced today that expenditures for improvements and repairs of residential properties in 2007 were estimated at $226.4 billion. This is a decrease of less than 1.0 percent (±20.8%)* from the 2006 estimate of $228.2 billion. Improvements accounted for 75.8 percent of the 2007 estimate. The remaining 24.2 percent was spent on maintenance and repairs.

Expenditures for improvements and repairs of residential properties in the fourth quarter 2007 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $236.6 billion. This estimate is 11.0 percent (±20.8%)* above the revised third quarter 2007 estimate of $213.2 billion.

Spending on maintenance and repairs was at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $56.3 billion in the fourth quarter 2007; improvements amounted to $180.3 billion.

For more detailed data and methodologies, go to our website: www.census.gov/construction/c50/c50index.html

 

EXPLANATORY NOTES

The statistics in this release are estimated from several sources and surveys and are subject to sampling variability as well as nonsampling errors including bias and variance from response, nonreporting, and undercoverage. Estimates of the standard errors are provided in Table 3. Whenever a statement such as "2.3 (±3.1) percent above" appears in the text, this indicates the range (-0.8 to +5.4 percent) in which the actual percent change is likely to have occurred. All ranges given are 90 percent confidence intervals and account only for sampling variability. If a range does not contain zero, the change is statistically significant. If it does contain zero, the change is not statistically significant; that is, it is uncertain whether there was an increase or decrease.

* 90% confidence interval includes zero. The U.S. Census Bureau does not have sufficient statistical evidence to conclude that the actual change is different from zero.

The full text of the press release is available online.

The methodology and definitions are available online.

Historic Expenditures for Residential Properties by Old Property Type categories: Quarterly 1962-2003
Historic Expenditures for All Residential Properties - Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate: Quarterly 1962-2007