News Detail
2017 is a good year for the construction industry. The forecast and discussion from experts and according to Dodge Date & Analytics, 2017 should be a strong year in terms of employment and economics for the industry, rising up 9%from 2016. The areas that will show the highest activity are expected to be the residential, commercial and institutional sectors that should show a strong begining in 2017. This year the industry has shown very good signs showing stabilization signs increasing construction activity and employment in many areas. The Dodge reports indicates that the 2017 will end by having an increase of 5% when compared to 2016, higher numbers than what was originally predicted for the 2016.Dodge estimates that 2017 will close out with $563.9 billion in starts—a 5% increase over 2016. That tally is well above the $550 billion total that Dodge initially forecast for the year.
2017 Construction Industry Forecast
Since 2012, the industry has been slowly increasing the number of mostly in part lead by the residential sector. However, the general outlook looks very positive for the industry.
Single Family Housing – The single family housing shall increase its activity by 11% or more than 700,000 additional units. A very important aspect of this, is that lending institutions need to play an important role in this and should increase their activity for this increase to happen.
Multifamily Housing – The multifamily business shall increase in more than 400,000 units when compared to last year. This increase will be directly related to the occupancy and rent market.
Commercial Building – The commercial building industry will keep increasing at a rate over 14%, slightly higher than 2014 forecast. Private developments are leading this effort by increasing office construction and all types of buildings associated with technology and finance institutions.Hotel and warehouse construction should also strengthen, although the pickup for stores is more tenuous.
Electric Utilities – This sector will drop 9% after the amount of work that was performed during 2013-2014. New projects coming on line will keep this activity low, as there won't be necessity to increase or start new utility scale construction.
Institutional building – Institutional buildings will increase in 9%, a trend that started in late 2015. The amount of schools that are funded by different bond structures will keep ramping up the construction of new educational buildings. Healthcare facilities are expected to show some improvement relative to diminished activity in 2016.
Public Work – Public work construction will show a slight increase of only 5%, following the large decline during 2016. Highway and bridge construction should stabilize, and modest gains are anticipated for environmental public works. Federal spending restraint will be offset by a greater financing role played by the states, involving higher user fees and the increased use of public-private partnerships.
Manufacturing plant construction- Manufacturing facilities will fall down almost 16%. These type of facilities reported large increase in activity during both 2015 (up 42%) and 2014 (up 57%). Those jumps were related to new chemical and energy-related projects. Next year’s volume remains quite high by recent historical standards.