Commercial, industrial & institutional (CII) construction spending
(Billions of current dollars)
| Spending in July 2001 | Percent change from July 2000 | Spending in year-to-date 2001 | Percent change from year-to-date 2000 | 2000 total spending | Annual percent change 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | |
| Source: U.S. Department of Commerce; forecast: Cahners Economics |
||||||||
| CII total | $27.10 | 6.6% | $174.22 | 7.2% | $292.42 | 8.1% | 4.3% | 3.3% |
| Commercial | 11.03 | -3.3 | 77.20 | 4.4 | 133.54 | 10.9 | 1.8 | -1.1 |
| Office | 4.44 | -4.6 | 33.01 | 9.3 | 55.69 | 17.0 | 5.1 | 6.3 |
| Retail | 5.40 | 0.5 | 35.53 | 4.3 | 61.45 | 8.0 | 2.2 | -4.6 |
| Hotel/motel | 1.20 | -13.7 | 8.67 | -10.6 | 16.40 | 2.8 | -10.7 | -15.5 |
| Industrial | 2.93 | 4.8 | 19.12 | 6.5 | 32.07 | -1.7 | -5.9 | 8.0 |
| Institutional | 13.14 | 17.1 | 77.91 | 10.3 | 126.81 | 8.0 | 9.4 | 6.7 |
| Health care | 1.61 | 3.3 | 11.25 | 8.8 | 18.58 | 6.4 | 6.5 | 3.6 |
| Education | 6.43 | 22.4 | 33.89 | 11.5 | 54.92 | 13.0 | 12.3 | 9.8 |
| Other institutional | 5.11 | 15.7 | 32.77 | 9.6 | 53.31 | 3.9 | 7.5 | 4.3 |
| Multifamily | 2.69 | 16.5 | 17.52 | 6.4 | 28.08 | 2.3 | 2.7 | 1.8 |
Glass prices constrained
Following four consecutive years when average flat glass prices moved lower, inflation for this product group spiked higher during 2000. The Labor Department reported that the producer price index for flat glass products rose by 3.2 percent between 1999 and 2000 — the steepest increase since the 1980s. But inflation has steadily eased during 2001, constrained by the same factors that drove prices higher last year, such as the costs to manufacturers of raw materials, labor and energy. During August 2001, average prices charged by producers of flat glass products, including laminated, sheet, plate and specialty glass, were 1.5 percent higher than during the same month last year.
National office vacancy rate rises above 10 percent
Second quarter 2001 saw a sharp increase in metropolitan office vacancies, according to data from commercial brokerage and research firm CB Richard Ellis. Metropolitan area vacancies rose to 10.3 percent of the supply total, a level 1.3 percent higher than during the first quarter, and a sharp 2.3 percent increase over the level recorded during April-June 2000. The second quarter 2001 level of downtown vacancies in office buildings was 1.8 percent greater than during the second quarter of last year. Suburban vacancy rates also moved higher, at 11.5 percent during the second quarter of 2001.
National industrial vacancy rate increases for consecutive quarters
The national availability rate for industrial space increased from 8.1 percent during the first quarter of 2001 to 8.8 percent in the second quarter. The April-June 2001 industrial vacancy rate was 1.1 percent higher than that recorded during the second quarter of 2000. This CB Richard Ellis survey measures the supply of available space in manufacturing plants and warehouses of 100,000 square feet or larger. Vacancy rates during the second quarter of 2001 ranged from 1.8 percent in the Albuquerque, N.M., area, to more than 20 percent in Jacksonville, Fla.
