Signs positive for growth in construction

By |  March 25, 2014

FMI offered predictions for various construction markets this year upon releasing its Q1-2014 Construction Outlook. FMI predicts an 8 percent overall increase in construction-put-in-place for 2014, and the firm is anticipating continued growth over the next few years.

Transportation, for example, will see a 7 percent improvement to $4.4 billion in 2014, FMI forecasts. Also, FMI expects the residential market to grow but it says the growth pace is slowing. The firm forecast 18-percent growth in single-family construction. Multifamily construction, however, will show a 27 percent increase in 2014, the firm adds. That’s a drop from the 44-percent increase in 2013.

In commercial construction, FMI says investors are beginning to help lift commercial out of a slump by taking more risks. The industry is expected to grow another 7 percent in 2014 to $52.6 billion. According to FMI, this would be the highest mark the category achieved since 2008.

Construction will grow 2 percent in 2014 in health care, FMI adds, but a 6-percent spike is forecast for 2015 as the outcomes on new health care regulations become clearer.

In addition, the firm says improving state and local budgets will help move educational construction back into the growth mode. Three percent growth can be expected in this category, according to FMI.

Growth is expected in other categories, as well. Power is forecast to climb from 5 to 9 percent over the next four years; manufacturing is forecast to grow 5 percent in 2014 and another 8 percent in 2015; and lodging is predicted to grow at 13 percent with 591 hotels opening in 2014, compared with 500 that opened in 2013.

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Kevin Yanik

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Kevin Yanik is editor-in-chief of Pit & Quarry. He can be reached at 216-706-3724 or kyanik@northcoastmedia.net.

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