The latest report on total construction starts showed a gain of 1% through the first 11 months of 2018 compared to that same period last year.

On a month-to-month basis, starts were down 7%, mostly due to a 15% drop in the nonresidential building sector following October's big 43% rise in that category. Residential building registered a 1% monthly decrease and non-building construction was off 2%.

"Amidst the monthly ups-and-downs, the construction start statistics show that on balance the construction industry expansion was still underway in 2018, although the rate of growth has slowed considerably from the 7% gains for total construction reported during 2016 and 2017," states Robert A. Murray, chief economist for Dodge Data & Analytics.

The brightest spots year-over-year according to him were starts of hotels, office buildings, manufacturing plants, educational facilities and amusement-related projects.

"With regard to residential building, multifamily housing has seen renewed growth in 2018 after its loss of momentum in 2017," Murray adds. "But single-family housing has essentially plateaued following the advances registered at the outset of 2018."

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