Cities With The Most New Construction In The U.S.

Image courtesy of carolinaservicesinc.com

New commercial construction projects have been popping up in metro areas around the U.S. the past two years at a rate not seen for several years. In 2013 McGraw Hill Construction put together their list of cities with the most money spent on new construction through May of last year (to my knowledge their  haven't been any newer updates to these numbers).

The overall numbers in their study were interesting. In 2012 new construction was up ten percent and at the time of their research they projected another 12 percent increase in 2013. Obviously, if you're looking at Metro projects you're looking at expenditures climbing into the billions. However, it's interesting to compare some other numbers to the fastest areas of new construction growth. Let's look at the top five in their list.

1. New York. Not surprisingly, New York came in first place as far and away the largest city in the country. From 2010 to 2012 population in New York jumped up slightly from 8.19 million to 8.34 million, but with annual new construction starts of over $20.5 billion it's clear that even in years of modest population growth, the need for newer, bigger and better things are taking place in New York City.

2. Dallas. Amazingly, Wikipedia has the most recent population at only 1.2 million, even though the city had new construction starts of over $11.1 billion in 2012 and increased that in 2013. The scope of projects for a city much smaller than New York is truly something.

3. Houston. Texas is definitely the site for new construction as Houston follows hot on Dallas's heals. In 2012 they had identical new construction starts of $11.1 billion. In the past year, Houston's population (already at 2.12 million) grew by 83,000. The thriving oil economy, healthy birth rate and a steady stream of immigrants helps fuel this growth.

4. Washington D.C. Far less populace than the top three in this list, Washington's government driven economy and historical buildings like the recent renovation to the IMF Headquarters continue to fuel healthy growth upwards of $10 billion annually.

5. Atlanta. Another crown jewel of the south, Atlanta's new construction starts grew by roughly 80% (projected) in 2013. That's astonishing growth for a city that had seen a drop in population of more than 100,000 from 2009 to 2010 and a sign of the city's resurgence.