What was the deal with our local new construction marketplace last month?
February proved a lackluster month for residential new construction in the Chicagoland area, according to new numbers from Dodge Data & Analytics.
For the month, residential construction in Chicagoland totaled $188 million, a 13 percent decline from January; thus far in 2015, Chicagoland residential spending totals $330 million, which is still down from the same time period in 2014, albeit by only 4 percent.
We should not take too much from those numbers – after all, February is only the second month of the year; this year’s winter was particularly harsh; and an unexpected plunge in multifamily housing activity dragged the national construction market down – but we’ll be monitoring Dodge Data’s numbers closely in the coming months to see if any trends emerge.
Take a look at our graph below for a deeper look at how our local construction market contrasts with the rest of the nation: