ConstructConnect announced that March construction starts, excluding residential activity, were +17.8 versus February. The long-term February-to-March advance, due to seasonality, has been only +2.5%. It’s usually not until April that more accommodating weather causes a big lift in volume of about +12.0%. Spring has apparently come early for groundbreakings this year.
March 2017 versus what was an exceptionally buoyant March 2016 did not fare as well, -5.9%. And year-to-date starts (Q1 2017) have been -5.1% versus January-to-March of last year.
‘Nonresidential building’ plus ‘engineering/civil’ work accounts for a considerably larger share of total construction than residential activity. The former’s combined proportion of total put-in-place construction in the Census Bureau’s February report was 60%; the latter’s was 40%.
ConstructConnect’s construction starts are leading indicators for the Census Bureau’s capital investment or put-in-place series. Also, the reporting period for starts (i.e., March 2017) is one month ahead of the reporting period for the investment series (i.e., February 2017.)