Warehouse starts down

The warehouse market, as always, is tracking very closely with trends in the overall economy. Warehouse construction activity in 2007 stalled at a high level, parallel to the trend in GDP growth. The “goods” portion of the GDP increased 4.1% in 2006, but rose only 1.9% in 2007. Warehouse construction spending increased 19% from the middle of 2006 through the middle of 2007, but since then has declined at a 7% annual pace. Similarly, the value of warehouse construction starts slowed slightly in the second half of 2007, and was about one-third lower that the peak in starts in the middle of 2005.