January's "value of construction put in place" jumped to a record seasonally adjusted annual rate of $878 billion, the Census Bureau reported (a href= "http://www.census.gov/const/www/c30index.html"> www.census.gov/const/www/c30index.html). That number was 1.7 percent higher than the upwardly revised figure for December of $863 billion (originally estimated at $858 billion) and 2.1 percent higher than in January 2002.
Private residential building construction (up 2.5 percent for the month and 12 percent over the year-ago month) and public construction (+1 percent for the month and 0.6 percent compared to January 2002) both set records.