The dollar value of construction put in place is down 0.5 percent in March from February, below the consensus of up 0.2 percent in the Econoday survey of forecasters. Spending on construction is down 0.4 percent for residential and down 0.5 percent for nonresidential projects. Total spending is up 2.8 percent compared to March 2025.

Spending private residential construction is down 0.4 percent in March with single-family building edging up 0.1 percent and multi-family projects flat. Spending on home improvement total private residential less single- and multi- unit construction is down 1.2 percent. If homebuilders are exercising caution about new construction, homeowners have put the brakes on potentially expensive home renovation and upgrades.

Private nonresidential spending is down 0.8 percent with nearly across-the-board decreases in spending except in two small categories.

Public construction spending is down 0.2 percent in March with a mixed performance across categories. The largest sectors are highway and street, and educational. Spending on highway and street construction is down 0.5 percent and education is down 0.6 percent.

The consensus looks for an increase of 0.2 percent after a 0.7 percent increase in February.

The dollar value of new construction activity on residential, non-residential, and public projects. Data are available in nominal and real (inflation-adjusted) dollars.

Construction spending has a direct bearing on stocks, bonds and commodities because it is a part of the economy that is affected by interest rates, business cash flow and even federal fiscal policy. In a more specific sense, trends in the construction data carry valuable clues for the stocks of home builders and large-scale construction contractors. Commodity prices such as lumber are also very sensitive to housing industry trends.

Businesses only put money into the construction of new factories or offices when they are confident that demand is strong enough to justify the expansion. The same goes for individuals making the investment in a home.

A portion of construction spending is related to government projects such as education buildings as well a highways and streets. While investors are more concerned with private construction spending, the government projects put money in the hands of laborers who then have more money to spend on goods and services.

On a technical note, construction outlays for private residential, private nonresidential, and government are key inputs into three components of GDP--residential investment, nonresidential structures investment, and the structures portion of government expenditures.

That is why construction spending is a good indicator of the economy's momentum.