The latest (July 2021) U.S. put-in-place construction spending numbers from the Census Bureau are shown in Table 1 below.
Year to date, the grand total is +6.2% (from the not seasonally adjusted/NSA column), but the decent-sized increase is only because of the extraordinary performance of residential capital spending, +25.3%. Nonresidential lingers in the doldrums, -7.5%.
The residential strength derives from two factors. More people working from home during the pandemic has led to an upsurge in renovation activity. (Graph 1 shows the buoyancy of retail sales by building material suppliers.) And housing starts are engaged in a mine-boom, ahead by one-fifth (in units) so far this year versus Jan-Jul 2020.
