The value of April nonresidential construction starts fell 7.2% from April to March, veering sharply from the usual seasonal monthly bump of 12%, according to ConstructConnect.
The commercial category plummeted 35.4% month-over-month, but industrial was hit the hardest, tumbling 72% from March. The modest gains in heavy engineering (10.4%) and institutional (27.9%) were not enough to reverse the overall negative trend.
Year-over-year, total starts values were down 22.8% in April 2017 while year-to-date values were down 1.6%. Still on an upward trend, heavy and civil engineering was the lone category to grow during the yearly and year-to-date periods, up 21.9% and 29.7%, respectively, from the prior year.