Dive Brief:
- Total construction starts last month were at an annual rate of $521.4 billion, up 7% from February. This may signal a change after February was down from January, and January was down from December.
- Within the industry, residential construction was down 2% to a $208.6 billion rate, non-residential building construction rose 2% to $176.3 billion, and non-building starts jumped 6% to $136.5 billion thanks to some power plants getting underway.
- Multifamily residential, which has been strong, was down, and single-family stayed about where it was in February – but it's been down or flat for five months.
Dive Insight:
Robert A. Murray, McGraw Hill Construction's chief economist, put some of the blame for the sad first quarter results on the winter weather, which has been used to explain a lot of industry softness so far this year. He also, however, attributed the picture to "the up-and-down pattern that’s frequently been present during the hesitant upturn witnessed over the past two years."