At a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $435.4 billion, new construction starts in February dropped 7% from the previous month, according to McGraw-Hill Construction, a division of The McGraw-Hill Cos. The loss of momentum was present in two of construction’s three main sectors – nonresidential building and nonbuilding construction (public works and electric utilities).
Meanwhile, the housing sector in February continued to strengthen. For the first two months of 2013, total construction starts on an unadjusted basis came in at $62.4 billion, up 5% from the same period a year ago. The February statistics lowered the Dodge Index to 92 (2000=100), down from 99 in January. For all of 2012, the Dodge Index averaged 99.