According to Dodge Data & Analytics, new construction starts in March fell 13 percent from February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $633.3 billion with a Dodge Index of 134. The fallback can be attributed to decreased activity in nonresidential building and nonbuilding construction.
Nonresidential building in March decreased 19 percent to $183.5 billion, with the manufacturing building category falling 57 percent. In addition, the commercial building group declined 10 percent, office construction fell 20 percent, warehouse construction dropped 26 percent and hotel construction stepped by 1 percent. Despite this, store construction rose 13 percent.
The institutional building group fell back 9 percent, which the healthcare facilities category dropping 40 percent, educational buildings declining 11 percent and public buildings falling 5 percent. However, the remaining institutional structure types reaped positive results, with transportation terminals up 33 percent, amusement-related work up 52 percent and religious buildings up 71 percent.
Nonbuilding construction dropped 22 percent in March to $198.5 billion due to a 73 percent plunge in the electric utility and gas plant category. Highway and bridge construction rose 30 percent and the miscellaneous public works category grew 86 percent. In addition, the environmental categories were also up, with river/harbor development up 33 percent, water supply systems up 16 percent and sewer systems up 1 percent.
Finally, residential building reported at $251.4, with single family housing up a slight 1 percent and multifamily housing receding 4 percent.
Despite this fall, however, construction starts for the first three months of 2015 are up 28 percent from the same period in 2014. This improvement is reflected in a growth in the three major sectors: nonresidential building year-to-date is up 10 percent, institutional building is up 12 percent, nonbuilding is up 74 percent and residential building is up 12 percent.
