Building in the Second City Making Significant Progress

Residential construction spending in the Chicagoland area was up 64 percent year-over-year in June, and so far in 2015 is 39 percent ahead of where it was last year.

Those encouraging stats came courtesy of the latest Dodge Data & Analytics report, a monthly look at residential construction activity in the nation’s largest metro areas.

Chicago Agent assembled a series of graphs on Dodge Data’s findings. Below is total residential construction spending in June:

Overall construction activity remains relatively low in Chicagoland, with its annual rate of $399 million far behind Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles and Miami.

Chicagoland’s year-over-year growth, though, is among the best in the nation:

June marks the second consecutive month of strong yearly growth for Chicagoland new construction. In May, the Second City’s residential construction market was up 74 percent year-over-year.

Yearly stats, however, can be volatile, and an area’s year-to-date progress is a better indicator of the market’s actual health:

At 39 percent, Chicagoland’s year-to-date measurements are also among the nation’s best, and they strongly indicate that Chicago is due for its best year of new construction activity since the downturn.