It has been slow so long we didn’t think it would ever pick up. Get ready for things to change. McGraw Hill Construction is forecasting that contract activity in the Southeast region will achieve an across the board increase within each of its broad construction categories: Nonresidential, residential. and nonbuilding. The acceleration is expected to be significant. McGraw-Hill is predicting a 22% overall gain the cumulative value of newly signed construction contracts for the states of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina during the coming year. 22% is a good number. By comparison, McGraw-Hill is predicting only a 9% gain for construction contracts nationwide. So how much building is that? McGraw-Hill expects $88.7 billion in new contracts in the Southeast in 2014. Unless you are greedy, or have a significant need to cut your overhead, you will likely be happy with a fairly modest slice of that pie to be happy. The contracts will not be spread evenly. North Carolina will have the least growth with 17%, and South Carolina will have the biggest increase with 45%.
Nonresidential Construction in the Southeast has been fairly steady for the past four years running between $18.8 billion to $19.2 billion. That is not much of a change over four years. What is happening in 2014? They expect growth to nearly $24 billion which is like a 26% increase for nonresidential construction in the Southeast. So pull out your rusty hammer from the back of your pick-up truck and go get ready to build something. Here’s wishing you a very prosperous New Year.