by Brianna Crandall — August 5, 2015—Despite the adverse weather conditions that curtailed design and construction activity in the first quarter of the year, the overall construction market has performed extremely well to date, according to a new industry consensus report from the American Institute of Architects (AIA).
The greatest amount of activity was seen in the building of commercial properties — most notably offices and hotels — with an unusually high spike in manufacturing construction spending triggered by the surge in domestic oil and natural gas production.
The AIA’s semi-annual Consensus Construction Forecast, a survey of the nation’s leading construction forecasters, is projecting that overall nonresidential spending will see a nearly nine percent increase in 2015, with commercial/industrial spending expected to rise 12.3% and institutional spending to rise 2.8%.
“Buoyed mostly by the red-hot commercial sector, spending on nonresidential buildings should be close to $360 billion this year, approaching $390 billion in 2016,” said AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker, PhD, Hon. AIA. “But the demographic factors that are also fueling heavy demand for healthcare and education facilities are going to lead to a more balanced construction market in the foreseeable future.”
The consensus growth forecasts by market segment for 2015 and 2016, including each of the panelist’s projections, are available on AIA’s Consensus Construction Forecast, June 2015 Web page.
The AIA Consensus Construction Forecast Panel is conducted twice a year with the leading nonresidential construction forecasters in the United States including Dodge Data & Analytics, Wells Fargo Securities, IHS-Global Insight, Moody’s economy.com, CMD Group, Associated Builders & Contractors and FMI. The Consensus Panel has been conducted for 16 years.
