SoFla residential construction booming in July

South Florida developers were practically pouring money into residential construction contracts during July, according to a new report from Dodge Data & Analytics.

Builders were awarded $964 million in single-family and multifamily construction contracts last month. That figure has grown 88 percent compared to $511.5 million in July 2014.

June saw similarly explosive growth with an 86 percent increase in residential construction contracts year-over-year. This is following a significant drop in construction spending during May, when residential contracts were down by roughly $52 million from the year before — a 19 percent decrease.

So far this year, an incredible $4 billion has been spent on residential contracts in the tri-county region including Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Broward Counties.

That mammoth number can be attributed to some of South Florida’s largest condo projects yet launching this year. Residential towers like Muse Sunny Isles, Marina Palms and 26 Edgewater have all broken ground this year, while projects like One Thousand Museum and Paramount Fort Lauderdale are only beginning to go vertical.

Meanwhile, nonresidential contracts suffered a large cut in spending. For reference, nonresidential covers “office, retail, hotels, warehouses, manufacturing, educational, healthcare, religious, government, recreational, and other buildings,” according to the report.

Nearly $100 million less went into those contracts during July compared to the same month last year. Nonresidential contracts for the month totaled $307 million, down from $416 million in 2014.

Despite this decrease, total spending for nonresidential construction has grown to $2.12 billion so far this year. Compared to the same time period last year, that number has grown by 20 percent.