Construction spending boosted by government projects

Spending on private construction came in at $527.6 billion, or 0.6 percent below the revised May estimate of $530.9 billion.

Residential construction fell 0.8 percent in June while nonresidential construction dropped 0.5 percent below the revised May estimate of $270.6 billion.

The sale and building of new homes has been sluggish since the April 30 expiration of a federal homebuyers tax credit.

Analysts have emphasized that the job market will need to pick up significant steam to provide a boost to the sluggish housing market.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said a decline in home prices could further stymie the economic recovery and put the nation in jeopardy of a double-dip recession.

“Home prices, as best we can judge, have really flattened out in the last year,” Greenspan said. “And while it is true that most economists expect a small dip from here, largely as a consequence of the ending of the tax credit, the data don’t show that at this particular stage. If home prices stay stable, then I think we will skirt the worst of the housing problem,” he said during a Sunday interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”