Despite the adverse weather conditions that curtailed design and construction activity in the first quarter of the year, the overall construction market has performed extremely well to date. The greatest amount of activity was seen in the building of commercial properties – most notably offices and hotels – with an unusually high spike in manufacturing construction spending triggered by the surge in domestic oil and natural gas production.

The American Institute of Architects’ (AIA) semi-annual Consensus Construction Forecast, a survey of the nation’s leading construction forecasters, is projecting that spending will see a nearly nine percent increase in 2015, with next year’s projection being 8.2%.

“Buoyed mostly by the red-hot commercial sector, spending on nonresidential buildings should be close to $360 billion this year, approaching $390 billion in 2016,” said AIA Chief Economist, Kermit Baker, PhD, Hon. AIA. “But the demographic factors that are also fueling heavy demand for healthcare and education facilities are going to lead to a more balanced construction market in the foreseeable future.”