The U.S. Census Bureau announced that construction spending declined at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 0.2 percent in May when compared to the month before. In all, $841.9 billion was spent on projects, which is 8 percent lower than in May 2009.
Private-construction spending dropped 0.5 percent to $536.3 billion. That compares to the $538.9 billion seen in April. Both residential and nonresidential fell, with the former seeing a decline of 0.4 percent.
Part of this may be due to the expiration of a tax credit for homebuyers, which ended on April 30. Through the credit, first-time purchasers were eligible for up to $8,000, while repeat buyers could have seen as much as $6,500.
While private-construction spending was down, May did see public building increase in value. The total spent on these projects came in at an annually adjusted rate of $305.5 billion, which was a 0.4 percent increase on figures reported for the fourth month of the year.
