South Florida construction starts rose in August

South Florida construction starts were up in August, according to a recently released report.

Total construction starts for Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties totaled $904.1 million, according to Dodge Data & Analytics, a Hamilton, New Jersey-based construction data analytics firm. That’s about 46 percent higher, month-over-month, and 8 percent higher than in August 2019.

Nonresidential construction — which includes office, industrial, government and other related buildings — came to $406.5 million in August, a 26 percent increase, month-over-month, and a 2 percent drop, year-over-year.

August’s residential construction starts — including single-family and multifamily buildings — totaled $497.6 million, a 68 percent jump from July and an 18 percent increase compared to August of 2019, according to the report.

Total monthly construction starts for August were higher than those reported for March, April and May.

Year to date, total South Florida construction starts are still down compared to the same period of last year. Total construction starts dropped 31 percent, year-over-year, to $6.3 billion, according to Dodge’s data. Nonresidential dropped 43 percent to $2.6 billion. Residential dropped 18 percent to $3.6 billion.

The country has seen construction squeezed by the pandemic. The Los Angeles Department of Buildings and Safety, for example, issued just over 26,300 permits from April 1 to June 30, or 45 percent of the roughly 48,000 issued last year.

Still, bankers nationwide appear to be returning to construction lending, providing $380.61 billion in construction loans in the second quarter, up from $369.75 billion in the first quarter.

And Miami-based homebuilder Lennar Corp. reported 15,564 new home orders during its latest quarter, a 16 percent increase over the same period last year. New orders also increased 20 percent from the previous quarter.