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Construction spending increases in Philly in 2011

12/8/2011 | Construction Blog, Real Estate Blog

In our last post, we noted that nationwide spending on construction has increased for the third month in a row for both housing and commercial projects. Residential properties include not only single-family housing, but also apartment dwellings. Commercial projects include a number of different types of property, ranging from educational and hotel projects, to religious and manufacturing properties.

According to the Philadelphia Business Journal, future construction activity is also on the rise in the Philadelphia metropolitan area when compared to last year. That conclusion is based on the latest research from McGraw-Hill Construction.

Future construction contracts for October ended up at $310.3 million for nonresidential and $114.4 million for residential. The latter has reportedly increased 25 percent from last October, and the former has increased 2 percent over the same time period. Those numbers were taken from Philadelphia and the immediate surrounding counties, and include both Camden and northern Delaware.

This year, non-residential construction projects added up to $2.35 billion, which is a 20 percent increase from last year. Residential construction project spending apparently decreased 14 percent from last year, totaling to $780 million. Altogether residential and commercial spending totaled $3.13 billion, which is a 9 percent increase from 2010.

As we noted last time, national increases in construction spending are thought to be the result of new activity in the housing market, low interest rates, and home improvement spending. Residential construction, both in Philadelphia and nationally, continues to struggle, and will likely take its good time picking back up.

Source: Philadelphia Business Journal, “Construction up in Philadelphia, expected to continue,” Natalie Kostelni,