The education segment cools while lodging, office and commercial heat up.
After a rather quiet first quarter of construction activity that most blamed on the very unpleasant, cold weather icing the country, the market has warmed up. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s report on “Value of Construction Put in Place,” from July, the year-over-year increase in total construction activity was 8.2 percent. The increase from just the previous month was 1.8 percent.
But the real activity shows in the segments serving the office and commercial markets, which generated year-over-year increases in total activity of 16.2 and 23 percent respectively. Those major increases demonstrate a growing confidence in the market, especially in the private sector, where availability of capital has increased and investors are looking for growth opportunities.
Residential construction activity continued to be strong, posting a 7.6 percent increase in July 2014 versus the same month in 2013. Unlike previous reports, though, residential activity no longer accounts for most of the gains in the construction market. Now, commercial construction seems to be growing more robustly as well.
In addition to the increases in the lodging, office and commercial segments, we need to note the decline in educational construction and the flattening of the transportation markets, which have been mainstays of commercial construction throughout the lean years. As federal, state and municipal budgets continued to be constricted, investment from those areas has lessened.
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Total Construction
Total Private Construction
Total Public Construction
