The 2020 construction market saw a sharp split in spending between residential and nonresidential construction. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the entire industry has seen 5.8% growth in spending between January 2020 and January 2021. The growth in spending was largely carried by residential construction of single-family homes. Nonresidential construction turned south in nearly every sector with a (5.0%) decrease; while residential construction expanded by 21.1% for the entire sector during the same time period. Spending on new single-family homes increased 24.2%. New multi-family homes spending grew by 16.9%.
We have updated our sales and production data for our 2020 LT Forecast report released in March 2020 due to the adverse effects of the Coronavirus pandemic. Check our newest entry in the Industry Forecast Reports section.
In our September 2019 Short Term Forecast (North American Machinery Service), we projected relatively low sales growth potential for earthmoving and materials handling machinery for 2019 and 2020. We are now expecting growth for the various segments of machinery we cover to be closer to 4 - 5 percent in 2019 and 3 - 4 percent in 2020, not materially different from our earlier projections. However, there are signs that business is slowing at the retail side and dealers are reducing new machine inventories as we approach 2020, primarily because of uncertainties in the marketplace many having been generated by the media.