Dodge Momentum Index declines in August 2019

The Dodge Momentum Index declined 1.3 percent from July to August, to 137.8 from the revised August reading of 139.6, Dodge Data & Analytics reports.

On a year-over-year basis, the overall index is 10.3 percent below August 2018, suggesting that construction spending will settle as the year progresses.

Still, the index has only dropped 1.8 percent since the beginning of 2019.

On a year-to-year basis, the institutional component of the index is down 22.5 percent while the commercial component is 2.4 percent lower.

In August, there were 11 projects each valued at $100 million or more that entered planning. The leading commercial projects were a $215 million office building in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, and a $200 million Amazon fulfillment center in Memphis, Tennessee. The leading institutional projects were a $235 million hospital tower in Salem, Oregon, and a $150 million dormitory at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina.

The Dodge Momentum Index is a monthly measure of the first report for nonresidential building projects in planning, which have been shown to lead construction spending for nonresidential buildings by a full year.