While construction in much of the country was down, the January report finds that building in the South Central part of the country - Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee - actually rose in a few key categories.
As a whole, multifamily construction fell 25 percent across the U.S., including a 43 percent drop in the Northeast, but the South Central saw figures rise 19 percent. Likewise, single family home construction slipped 7 percent in January, but again the South Central saw its figures tick up slightly at 3 percent.
However, other areas did see some growth last month. According to the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal the report finds that Lancaster, Pennsylvania saw a 40 percent rise in contracts in January. Most of that increase came from nonresidential building which saw a 126 percent increase to 15.9 million.
It appears that Pennsylvania played a big part in the increase in one segment of the nonresidential building in the country last month. According to McGraw-Hill, the manufacturing plant category was up 25 percent, which was helped by the start of a $500 million steel plant in Pennsylvania.
