Dodge Data & Analytics, New York, has reported construction starts increased 9% in June. Total construction starts in June were down 8% compared with June 2018.
“On balance, the pace of construction starts has been sluggish so far in 2019, as activity has been generally lower than the healthy amount reported during the first half of 2018,” says Robert A. Murray, chief economist for Dodge Data & Analytics. “The improved activity during May and June suggests that the gap relative to last year should narrow in coming months.
“Several features of the first half of 2019 stand out, as shown by the construction start statistics,” Murray continues. “For nonresidential building, the commercial and institutional building segments have stayed close to their 2018 amounts, but manufacturing plant construction has not seen the same number of very large projects that were reported last year. For nonbuilding construction, electric utility starts have witnessed renewed growth after several years of decline, but public works construction was generally lackluster in early 2019 and the dollar amount of new pipeline projects is down considerably from last year. For residential building, single-family housing remains generally flat, adversely affected by affordability constraints. In addition, multifamily housing has lost momentum following its 2018 rebound, yet the occasional strong month like June suggests that this year’s multifamily pullback is likely to stay moderate.”
Nonresidential building construction increased 16% in June. In the commercial category, office construction grew 31%; warehouse construction climbed 19%; store construction fell 1%; commercial garages declined 9%; hotel construction decreased 11%; and manufacturing plant construction retreated 45%. In the institutional category, transportation terminal construction jumped 348%; public buildings soared 242%; health care facility construction grew 22%; educational building construction rose 1%; amusement-related construction fell 7%; and religious buildings declined 43%.
Residential building construction rose 5% in June. Single-family housing fell 3%, and multifamily construction grew 26%.
Nonbuilding construction increased 6% in June.
During the first six months of 2019, nonresidential building was down 10% compared with the same time period in 2018. Residential building decreased 9%, and nonbuilding construction dropped 5%. By geographic region, Midwest declined 5%; Northeast dropped 7%; the South Central slipped 8%; South Atlantic fell 10%; and West decreased 10%.
