Texas & Southeast

In Florida, March Sees Building Markets Soar, Infrastructure Sour

Despite strong improvement in Florida’s building markets, the state’s March total for new construction contracts fell 24% overall due to a sharp drop in the pace of infrastructure project starts. McGraw-Hill Construction Dodge, publisher of ENR Southeast, estimated the value of new March construction contracts at just over $2 billion.

Despite the sizeable decline, builders had plenty to cheer in March. Nonresidential contracts tallied $692.2 million for the month, or 45% better than last March’s $477.8 million. And residential contracts roared to life as well, increasing by 43% to totally nearly $1.1 billion.

The nonbuilding sector—which includes infrastructure—dropped considerably, however. March’s $255.9-million total for this category was 82% lower than last year’s pace, for instance.

Despite the March decline, Florida’s construction contracts total for the first quarter of 2012 remains 31% higher than 2011’s early pace, says McGraw-Hill Construction Dodge, with about $6.9 billion in new projects so far.

On a year-to-date basis, all three of McGraw-Hill’s broad construction categories remain significantly positive. Nonresidential, for instance, tallies nearly $1.8 billion for the first three months of the year, or 37% better than the same period of a year ago.

Residential contracts have gained similarly. McGraw-Hill Construction estimates this sector at more than $2.7 billion to date, or about 34% higher than a year ago.

Even with the woeful March numbers, the nonbuilding sector remains well ahead of 2011’s pace, with more than $2.4 billion in new contracts to date, or about 24% better than a year ago.

Scott Judy is ENR’s Managing Editor. His roughly 34 years as a construction journalist began with an 11-year stint visiting and writing about construction projects in the Midwest region of Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska. Then, in 2000, Judy helped launch ENR Southeast, now known as ENR Texas & Southeast. After all these years, Judy says his favorite part of being an ENR editor is visiting job sites and learning how—and reporting on—a team’s approach to overcoming the project’s design and construction challenges. And Judy says he never turns down an invitation for a project visit.