Midwest Construction, published by McGraw-Hill, released its estimates for 2011’s regional construction starts in the Midwest.

“McGraw-Hill predicts that single-family housing starts will rise 23% in 2011, climbing from 16,225 units in 2010 to 19,900 units in 2011, and that multi-family housing starts will go up 7%, from 4,100 in 2010 to 4,400 in 2011.

Commercial and non-manufacturing building starts are predicted to rise from 9,525 to 11,175, or 17%.

Institutional and other nonresidential building starts will go from 19,600 to 19,875, or an increase of about 1%.

Starts for non-building construction, which includes projects such as roads, bridges, and dams, are expected to drop about 3%, from 30,850 in 2010 to 30,075 in 2011. McGraw-Hill predicts that aggregated starts for all types of construction will rise from 80,300 in 2010 to 85,425 in 2011, a net increase of 6%.

The American Institute of Architects’ recently released Architecture Billings Index, which measures nationwide architectural activity, showed that September’s design activity had reached a reading of 50.4, up from 48.2 the month before. It was the fourth consecutive month that the ABI had risen, and the first time since 2007 that it had broken a score of 50 – which indicates an increase in billings.”

McGraw-Hill reports that most industry experts believe the industry is headed in the right direction, just very slowly.

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