The value of new construction starts in January advanced 2% compared to December, reaching a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $722.5 billion, according to Dodge Data & Analytics.

The slight gain followed the loss of momentum that was reported toward year-end 2018, with

[caption id="attachment_5116" align="alignleft" width="319"] Robert Murray, chief economist for Dodge Data[/caption]

construction declines of  7% in November and 10% in December. Each of the three main construction sectors in January registered modest growth.

Each of the three main construction sectors in January registered modest growth.  Residential building climbed 4%, lifted by a rebound for multifamily housing.  Nonresidential building edged up 1%, reflecting a stronger pace for its commercial building segment including large office projects in Reston, V.a., Houston, Boston, Austin, Texas, and Seattle.

Nonbuilding construction edged up 1%, helped by the start of a $1.0 billion natural gas pipeline in Oklahoma and several large electric utility projects.  On an unadjusted basis, total construction starts in January were $51.5 billion, down 12% from the same month a year ago.

The January statistics produced a reading of 153 for the Dodge Index (2000=100), compared to December’s 150.

“January’s slight increase suggests that construction starts are beginning to stabilize after the diminished activity reported at the end of last year,” stated Robert A. Murray, chief economist for Dodge Data & Analytics.  “This is consistent with the belief that total construction starts for 2019 will be able to stay close to last year’s volume.  It’s true that the rate of growth for total construction starts has subsided from the 7% annual gain reported back in 2017, but it’s still too early to say that construction activity has made the transition from deceleration to decline.”

Residential building in January was $309.8 billion (annual rate), up 4% and rebounding from its 9% slide in December. Multifamily housing bounced back 14% following its 15% December decline, and was up 1% compared to its average monthly pace during 2018. There were five multifamily projects valued at $100 million or more that reached groundbreaking in January, compared to four such projects in December.

The large January multifamily projects were led by the $150 million Watermark at Brooklyn Heights senior apartments in Brooklyn, N.Y., the $146 million multifamily portion of a $250 million mixed-use complex in Washington, D.C., and a $128 million multifamily complex in Oakland CA.  The top-five metropolitan areas ranked by the dollar amount of new multifamily starts in January were--New York, Washington D.C., Boston, San Francisco, and Charlotte, N.C.

Single family housing in January was unchanged from the reduced dollar amount reported for December, which itself was down 6% from November. January’s rate of activity for single family housing was down 7% from the average monthly pace reported during 2018. By major region, single-family housing performed as follows in January compared to December--the West, up 3%; the South Central, up 2%; the South Atlantic, unchanged; the Northeast, down 3%; and the Midwest, down 9%.

Construction starts for the most recent twelve months held steady with the amount of the previous twelve months. Residential building advanced 4% compared to the previous period, with multifamily housing up 7%, and single-family housing up 3%.