Dive Brief:
-
Non-residential construction starts fell by 13.6% in September, Construction Market Data reported this week.
-
Researchers attributed nearly a quarter of the decline in starts to a fall-off in seasonal summertime building, saying an average dip in activity from August to September is about 3%. In fact, non-residential starts ballooned by 25% between July and August.
-
Still, the $27.7 billion in September starts mark the third highest of the year, after June and August.
Dive Insight:
Compared with last September, non-residential starts were up last month by almost a third. Year to date, starts are ahead of the first nine months of 2013 by 10.5%. Within those numbers are a 4.4% gain in heavy engineering starts; an 18.2% downturn in institutional starts; and a 22.1% loss in commercial starts.