Construction spending in SoFla takes deep dive in October

South Florida builders saw a big drop in construction contracts during October, according to a new report from Dodge Data & Analytics.

The research firm looked at spending on new construction for both residential and commercial markets throughout Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. It found the amount of money developers spent on contracts in October was more than halved compared to the same month last year.

Roughly $354 million was spent on residential construction contracts last month. That’s down 53 percent from the $758 million spent last October.

Non-residential, which includes everything from hotels to government buildings, fared slightly better: roughly $189 million was spent in October, down 47 percent from the $357 million spent last year.

Despite this huge dip, South Florida has already spent close to $700 million more on construction contracts this year than all of 2015 combined. The report said non-residential spending reached $2.7 billion in October, and residential was up to $5.4 billion. Last year, the two markets combined saw $7.45 billion in construction spending. — Sean Stewart-Muniz