{"id":63006,"date":"2020-09-21T14:05:54","date_gmt":"2020-09-21T18:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/retrofitmagazine.com\/?p=63006"},"modified":"2020-09-21T14:04:44","modified_gmt":"2020-09-21T18:04:44","slug":"total-construction-starts-rise-in-august","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/retrofitmagazine.com\/total-construction-starts-rise-in-august\/","title":{"rendered":"Total Construction Starts Rise in August"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Total construction starts rose 19 percent in August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $793.3 billion. Gains were seen in all three major building sectors; nonresidential building starts rose 16 percent and residential building climbed 12 percent, while nonbuilding construction jumped 40 percent over the month. While large projects certainly influenced the August gains, removing those projects would still have resulted in a gain for the month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Year-to-date through the first eight months of the year, starts were 14 percent lower than in the same period in 2019. Nonresidential starts were 24 percent lower and nonbuilding starts were down 20 percent, but residential starts were down less than one percent. For the 12 months ending August 2020, total construction starts declined 6 percent from the 12 months ending August 2019. Nonresidential building starts fell 13 percent and\u00a0nonbuilding starts were 9 percent lower in the 12 months ending August 2020, while residential building starts rose 3 percent. In August, the Dodge Index rose 19 percent to 168 (2000=100) from the 141 reading in June. The Dodge Index was down 8 percent compared to a year earlier and 6 percent lower than its pre-pandemic level in February.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n