The small religious buildings category managed to show a sizable percentage increase in August, rising 42% from its depressed July amount.

Residential Building

Residential building, at $265.5 billion (annual rate), fell 8% in August.  Multifamily housing retreated 23% after climbing 22% in July to its strongest level so far in 2015. The August pace for multifamily housing was still 21% above the average monthly amount reported during 2014. There were eight multifamily projects valued each at $100 million or more that reached groundbreaking in August, led by the $530-million multifamily portion of the $550-million Metropolis Residential Towers (phase 2)

in Los Angeles, a $300-million apartment building on West 53rd St. in New York City, and a $290-million residential tower in Boston. At the eight-month point of 2015, the top five metropolitan markets ranked by the dollar volume of multifamily starts were: New York City, Miami, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Boston.

Single-family housing in August edged up 1%, regaining slight upward momentum after slipping 4% in July. The August pace for single-family housing was 12% higher than the average monthly amount reported during 2014. By geography, single-family housing in August showed a moderate increase for the Northeast, up 8%, while the other four regions were basically flat—the South Atlantic and the West, each up 1%; the Midwest, no change; and the South Central, down 2%.

Nonbuilding Construction

Nonbuilding construction in August dropped 12% to $128.3 billion (annual rate), declining for the third month in a row. The public works categories as a group were down 15% in August, slipping to the lowest volume so far in 2015. Highway and bridge construction (like public works overall) fell 15% in August, and has generally lost momentum since the first quarter. Despite the decline, highway and bridge construction in August did include the start of a $237-million rehabilitation project for the Manhattan exit plaza of the Queens Midtown Tunnel in New York City.

The “other public works” category (which includes such diverse project types as sitework, mass transit and outdoor sports stadiums) fell 29% in August, even with the start of a $155-million soccer stadium in Orlando, Fla.  The environmental public works categories in August were mixed, with river/harbor development down 16% and water supply systems down 17%, while sewer construction increased 23%.

The electric power and gas plant category in August was unchanged from the previous month. Large electric power projects that were entered as August starts included a $408-million solar power plant in California and a $323-million wind farm in Minnesota.

The 15% gain for total construction starts on an unadjusted basis during the January-August period of 2015 reflected double-digit increases for residential building and nonbuilding construction, while nonresidential building was down moderately.

Residential building year-to-date advanced 18%, due to a 30% jump for multifamily housing, combined with 14% growth for single-family housing.  Nonbuilding construction year-to-date surged 43%, with electric utilities and gas plants up 245% and public works up 8%.

As 2015 is progressing, the substantial year-to-date increase for nonbuilding construction is becoming smaller. Nonresidential building year-to-date slipped 5%, pulled down especially by a 28% retreat for the manufacturing building category.

Meanwhile, the commercial building group came in 5% below the same period a year ago while the institutional building group was up 3%.

By major region, total construction starts during the first eight months of 2015 showed this behavior—the South Central, up 31%; the Northeast, up 20%; the South Atlantic, up 14%; the West, up 6%; and the Midwest, up 4%.