September Construction Starts Climb 13% Nationwide
New construction starts in September advanced 13% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $556 billion, according to McGraw Hill Construction, a division of McGraw Hill Financial. Nonresidential building bounced back after losing momentum in August, and the nonbuilding construction sector was lifted by the start of several large power plants, which ran counter to the sharply downward trend for electric utilities that’s been present during 2013.
For the first nine months of 2013, total construction starts on an unadjusted basis were reported at $379.3 billion, up 2% from the same period a year ago. If electric utilities were excluded from the year-to-date statistics, total construction starts in the first nine months of 2013 would be up 11%.