2016 Construction Forecast
According to Dodge Data and Analytics, new construction in 2016 is expected to grow 6% to $712 billion in comparison with an estimated 13% in 2015. This increase is for housing, commercial and institutional building sectors, while public works is unchanged from 2015 due to a slight reduction in highway and bridge construction balanced by a slight increase in the environmental public works side. Healthcare and educational facility new construction are also expected to see healthy growth in 2016 due to demographic factors.
Here are some more facts to digest:
- Commercial building will show an increase of 11%, up from 4% annual estimated gain in 2015. Office construction is leading the commercial sector.
- Multifamily housing is set to increase by 7% in terms of dollars and 5% in units which is growth but slightly slower than 2015. A few factors related to this increase include rising rents, demand for apartment, and low vacancies.
- Single family housing is predicted to rise 20% in terms of dollar growth and 17% increase in units. This is partly due to the fact that access to home mortgage loans has seen improvement.
2015 Re-cap
Rough weather conditions threw the design and construction activities in the first quarter off-track. Despite this fact, the overall construction market has done well in 2015. The building of commercial properties like offices and hotels saw the largest amount of activity. Domestic oil and natural gas production yielded a spike in manufacturing construction.
