Drop in Health Facilities Construction Continues in November

October’s construction trend continued in November. Overall, health facilities construction starts declined 0.1 percent, versus an increase of 0.9 percent for other construction. Health facilities construction accounted for almost 6 percent of non-residential construction starts. However, there was greater gap between health and non-health starts in private than public construction.

(See Table I below the fold.)

Construction of private health facilities dropped 0.2 percent, versus an increase of 1.0 percent for private non-health facilities. Private health facilities construction starts accounted for less than 4 percent of private nonresidential construction starts. 

Construction of public health facilities increased by 0.4 percent, while construction of public non-health facilities increased 0.8 percent. In other words, non-health facilities construction outpaced health construction by 1.2 percentage points in the private construction market, versus only 0.4 percentage points in the public construction market.

For the twelve months ending last October, there was a significant difference in trend between private and public construction. Non-health private construction increased 4.3 percent, but private health facilities construction dropped 1.5 percent. On the other hand, non-health facilities public construction increased 2.6 percent, while public health facilities construction increased by 2.9 percent.

This suggests private investors are nervous about future revenue growth in hospitals and other facilities.