Construction Forecasts

[BadgerEngineer]

The recent construction forecasts for the building industry (not including transportation) I've seen have been rather grim for 2011 with little growth predictions until 2012.

Has anyone read any reports or heard of any areas of the country that are starting to grow in this sector? (Hospitality, Commercial, Residential, Education, etc)

 

[HuckleberryFinn]

We are a small firm in the SE and we have seen a significant increase in the number of projects (both bid and won) over the past three months.

The sectors have been varied: a few university buildings, a few upfits to industrial plants, two new industrial plants, and several healthcare buildings.

The projects are there.

 

[cry22]

Weirdest thing I noticed, each time there is a recession (yeah, I've been around), the following institutions tend to initiate capital improvement projects:

1. Universities (their tuition goes up, no matter how bad the economy is).
2. Hospitals, people get sick, no matter the state of the economy.

and this last one has puzzled me, because you'd think the opposite.

3. Churches tend to go with major expansions during recessions. Wonder why? (you'd expect less donations during recessions)

I think that these institutions have plenty of money and tend to shelve projects and wait for the "right" market conditions till the contractors (and the Arcitects) are hungry enough for work.

 

[TheTick]

I read John Mauldin every week. His writing is a good starting point for finding sources of macro economic and investing news, which is a good indicator of near-future capital spending (e.g. construction).

http://www.johnmauldin.com

 

[lacajun]

They are building residential in my area again and some are large, custom homes, too.

 

[msquared48]

Interesting, for I heard a report on the internet last week that the housing market is still expected to go down as much as 20% further. We'll see...

Some residential building in my area at the mo0ment, but it appears tentative at best.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering