JOIN | Home | Contact | Print | E-mail | Español

November contracts decrease 3 percent

McGraw-Hill Construction, a division of The McGraw-Hill Cos., New York, has reported construction starts decreased 3 percent in November. In addition, during the first 11 months of 2008, total construction was down 16 percent compared with a year ago.

"The pattern of construction activity continues to be shaped by the extended weakness for single-family housing, which has not yet shown that it's close to reaching bottom," says Robert A. Murray, vice president of economic affairs for McGraw-Hill Construction. "The steep correction for housing has been under way for three straight years now, and a fourth year of decline is anticipated for 2009. The current year also has seen emerging weakness for nonresidential building, which is expected to broaden in scope during 2009 given tight credit conditions and the tough economic climate. Public works has seen some erosion in the volume of construction starts during 2008, but the nonbuilding total also has been lifted by a surge of new power plants. The prospects for nonbuilding construction going into 2009 would appear to be the brightest of the three major sectors, given the potential boost to public works coming from the stimulus package that's likely to be enacted in late January or February."

Nonresidential building construction decreased 2 percent in November. In the commercial category, manufacturing plants experienced a 65 percent increase; store construction rose 20 percent; hotel construction grew 6 percent; office construction dropped 32 percent; and warehouses fell 27 percent. In the institutional category, public buildings jumped 50 percent; churches increased 12 percent; educational buildings grew 7 percent; transportation terminals dropped 11 percent; health care facilities fell 7 percent; and amusement-related construction decreased 5 percent.

Residential building construction fell 9 percent in November. Single-family housing declined 10 percent, and multifamily construction dropped 5 percent.

Nonbuilding construction increased 1 percent in November.

During the first 11 months of 2008, nonresidential building was unchanged compared with the same time period in 2007. Residential building was down 39 percent, and nonbuilding construction increased 2 percent. By geographic region, the Northeast dropped 2 percent; South Central fell 1 percent; Midwest decreased 12 percent; South Atlantic dropped 25 percent; and West declined 27 percent.

12/20/2008  

Comments (0) Login to post a comment

There are no comments posted.