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Houston area construction starts take a tumble in January

Houston area construction starts take a tumble in January

The Houston region experienced a sharp year-over-year drop in the value of nonresidential construction projects started in January, while residential projects were slightly lower, according to Dodge Data & Analytics.

Starts of non-residential projects, including office, retail, hotels, warehouses, education and other categories, fell by 46 percent year-over-year to $583 million in January. One factor contributing to the steep decline was that Hines broke ground in January 2019 on downtown’s Texas Tower, a project valued at $350 million, according to Dodge.

The value of new residential projects commenced fell by 2 percent to $822 million in January, according to Dodge. Single-family home starts rose 14 percent to $778 million, while multifamily starts fell 71 percent to $44.8 million.

Overall, the value of Houston-area construction starts fell by $521 million, or 27 percent, year-over-year to $1.4 billion in January.

Among nonresidential projects, education projects shot up most, rising to $267 million in January 2020 from $69.8 million the year earlier. The biggest projects were High School No. 12 in Rosharon, valued at $140 million, and Tomball Memorial High School, valued at $45.9 million. The government buildings and stores categories also experienced year-over-year gains.

Dodge tracks construction starts in a region covering Austin, Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Liberty, Montgomery, San Jacinto and Waller counties.

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