The Impact of Revisions to Remodeling Spending | Pound Ridge Real Estate

The most recent release of Census’ Construction Spending report included significant revisions to the residential improvements spending category. Residential improvements spending is calculated as the amount of total private residential spending on owner-occupied units after accounting for single-family and multifamily expenditures. As discussed in an earlier post, with these changes, the total amount of spending on residential improvements more closely tracks NAHB’s remodelers’ sentiment.

According to Census, in the January 2016 release of the Construction Spending report, which provides construction spending data up to November 2015, monthly and annual estimates for private residential, total private, total residential and total construction spending for January 2005 through October 2015 were revised to correct a processing error in the tabulation of data on private residential improvement spending.

As illustrated in Figure 1, which shows residential improvements spending measured at a seasonally adjusted annual rate for each quarter, the revised series diverged noticeably from the first quarter of 2012 onward. Between 2012 and the third quarter of 2013, the revised series shows a muted increase while the previous series rose more significantly. In addition, the previous residential improvements series exhibited a steep decline over 2014 with a partial recovery in 2015. In contrast, the 2014 decline in the revised series is shallower, of a shorter duration, and is erased by the first quarter of 2015.

Figure 1 indicates that the revisions to residential improvements spending were sizable, especially in 2014 and the first three quarters of 2015. Between 2012 and the third quarter of 2013, the December 2015 release of residential improvements spending was revised down by an average of $12 billion in each quarter by the January 2016 release. On average, each quarter of spending over this period was revised down by 9%. The largest revision in this period took place in the first quarter of 2013 when the $131.3 billion in residential improvements spending was revised down by 12% to $115.6 billion.