Slight Dip for Residential Starts in October, Big Slump for Non-Residential
NEW YORK — New construction starts in October fell 9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $742.9 billion, pulling back after a 14% jump in September, according to Dodge Data & Analytics.
Residential housing starts declined 1% in October as construction of multifamily units slipped. Non-residential construction starts fell dramatically by 30% ($258.7 billion annual rate), following a 37% surge in the previous month. This was due to a mammoth $6 billion ethane cracker plant, and a $4 billion Delta terminal at La Guardia, which were included in the September figure.
The commercial group was able to shake off a decline in office building to post a 10% rise in October.
“The pace for nonresidential building in September was unsustainably high, so October’s decline was expected. Nonresidential building is still on track to show moderate growth for 2017 as a whole, helping to keep the expansion for overall construction activity going,” Robert Murray, chief economist for Dodge Data & Analytics, says in a press release.
For home building, the pullback on multifamily was 3% due to a lower number of $100 million+ projects started in the month (4 compared to September’s 7).
New York, Miami, Washington D.C., Seattle and Los Angeles were the top 5 metropolitan areas for multifamily starts in dollar terms.
“Multifamily housing is retreating from a very strong 2016, but to this point the retreat has been modest. And, the downward pull coming from nonbuilding construction appears to be easing, given the ongoing strength shown by pipeline projects and some recent improvement by highways, bridges, and mass transit,” Murray states.
Single-family starts held steady with the five major regions in the sector during the first 10 months of 2017 revealed as the South Atlantic, up 11%; the South Central, up 8%; the West, up 7%; the Midwest, up 5%; and the Northeast, down 1%.
The overall total for residential construction starts was $295.9 billion (annual rate).
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