As I mentioned on my last blog post, I had the opportunity to interview Robert Murray, Chief Economist and Vice President with Dodge Data & Analytics, about the U.S. construction sector.
As Mr. Murray mentioned, the current construction cycle we are in is different than previous cycles because we aren’t facing the imbalances we faced in prior upturns. Furthermore, the overall fundamentals are still good for construction. We might be facing some slowdown, but not yet a decline.
How this Trend Affects Specific Regions
A common question we get is about how specific geographies will fare. But, as most of you know, trends in Construction, like Real Estate, vary depending on the locality.
Every market is different. During our conversations, Mr. Murray and I had the opportunity to discuss the outlook for different geographical regions. He highlighted a few key regions and cities he thinks are having great performances, so please check out my conversation with him about it.
One thing we discussed that stood out to me was not around regions, but about how metropolitan suburbs have a potential for making a comeback.
As we’ve explored in the past, urban and suburban markets tend to be in different cycles in and of themselves with urban markets experiencing stronger growth over the last few years driven by the Millennial populations.
However, moving forward we might see this same population looking at suburban markets. It’s a very interesting dynamic that we need to continue to follow and understand.
