The residential construction sector may be slow, but a new report says other categories are making up for it.
Dodge Construction Network reports that total starts for the month of May were up 34.1 percent month-over-month, driven largely by new projects in infrastructure and data centers. That put the seasonally adjusted annual rate at $1.78 trillion, giving builders and contractors viable alternatives to the struggling homebuilding field.
“Megaprojects starts within healthcare, manufacturing, utilities and data centers, which drove sizable gains across the month,” said Sarah Martin, director of economic research at Dodge in announcing the results. “Outside of this activity, however, pockets of weakness across institutional construction, warehouses and residential construction remain.”
On a year-to-date basis through May, total nonresidential starts improved 12.3 percent, led by a 32.9 percent growth in commercial groundbreakings. In month-over-month results,
nonresidential building starts increased 17.8 percent in May while manufacturing construction rebounded 116.1 percent during that span. The number, Dodge said, was predominantly due to a massive $5 billion Rivian electric vehicle plan groundbreaking in Georgia.
Nonbuilding construction posted the month’s strongest gains, up 91.9 percent month over month in May, Dodge reported, with highway and bridge starts exploding 111.3 percent from the month prior.
