Despite signals of impending declines, continued growth in nonresidential construction is expected through 2020

Spending on nonresidential building construction is expected to increase almost four percent this year and more than two percent in 2020, according to a new consensus forecast from The American Institute of Architects (AIA).

Continued volatility has not impacted construction spending as the projections by the AIA Consensus Construction Forecast Panel—consisting of leading economic forecasters—are largely unchanged from where they stood at the beginning of the year. While some individual construction sectors are projected to see declines over the next 18 months, the consensus projects overall building construction activity will continue to expand.

“Outlook showing nonresidential construction activity continuing to expand reflects the underlying strength of the economy, even this late in the business cycle,” said AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker, Hon. AIA, PhD. “However, there are several potential threats to continued healthy growth in the broader economy as well as in the construction industry that would point to slower economic growth in future quarters.”

The AIA Consensus Forecast is computed as an average of the forecasts provided by the panelists that submit forecasts for each of the included building categories.

There are no standard definition of some nonresidential building categories, so panelists may define a given category somewhat differently.

Panelists may forecast only a portion of a category (e.g public buildings but not private buldings); these forecasts are treated like other forecasts in computing the consensus.

All forecasts are presented in current (non-inflation adjusted) dollars.