Construction spending in the United States increased by 0.1 percent in July, as per the Associated Builders and Contractors analysis of the data released from the U.S. Census Bureau. Based on a seasonal adjusted annualized basis, nonresidential expenditure totaled $1.08 trillion, growing by 16.5 percent year-over-year.
Spending increased per month for eight of the 16 subcategories for nonresidential. Nonresidential private expenditure grew by 0.5 percent, while construction spending in the public sector decreased by 0.4 percent in July.
“After today’s jobs report, which indicated that nonresidential construction added an outsized number of jobs in August, one would have expected a strong construction spending growth as well,” said ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu. “Alas, the economic data, as well as the economy, are filled with unexpected developments. In July, construction spending for non-residents only grew. When inflation is considered expenditure, it falls in real terms.
“Perhaps the bigger surprise is that construction spending weakness was not concentrated in the private developer-driven segments that have struggled to establish consistent momentum, but in several public construction segments,” Basu said. Basu. “Monthly spending was down in the highway/street, transportation, sewage/waste disposal, and conservation/development categories. But, each type has seen an increase in spending year-over-year.
“Since nonresidential construction hiring was strong last month, the expectation is that July’s construction spending number will prove to be an aberration,” Basu said. Basu. “Spending growth should remain steady moving forward, fueled mostly by huge construction projects that are in the developing or in the early stages of construction. But, those sectors that rely the most on bank loans are set to decline in the coming years.”
The non-profit Collaborative for High-Performance Schools (CHPS) recently began a project to create the best practice guidelines for the industry in modernizing school initiatives.
The Minor Renovations Program aims to provide a set of guidelines and guidelines for schools to ensure that their improvements meet an acceptable threshold for performance. CHPS is forming a group of experts from different disciplines in design performance, well-being, and health, technologies, and products, as well as school district administrators to:
- Find best practices to underpin the new design guidelines
- Schools pilot improvements to prove their effectiveness
- Create and demonstrate financing solutions that show how funds can be better employed to improve performance
- Develop and build a support community for schools
Two of the largest schools, Los Angeles Unified and the Cypress-Fairbanks ISD (Harris County, Texas), will join the program from the beginning. More districts are likely to participate in the future.
“It’s estimated that 53% of America’s public schools need to invest in repairs, renovations, and modernizations, yet upgrades are not getting done at the rate or scale needed to provide safe and productive learning environments for students,” according to the CHPS announcement. “Although smaller renovation projects represent the majority of districts’ facility expenditures, a set of industry-aligned best practices does not exist to enable effective planning and implementation.”