Key Takeaways:

• 2023 year-end construction starts reflect the impacts of large-scale investment announcements and resulting growth across all sectors statewide.
• South Carolina is poised to leverage a favorable business climate and nationwide stabilization of material costs in 2024-2025.
• Tip: Early collaborative planning among project management, owner, designer and builder results in enhancement of cost control and construction scheduling. ​

Overview

Construction Starts: South Carolina’s construction market continued to see growth in five of six sectors throughout the second half of 2023, surpassing 2022 by $2.36B. This is a 59% increase, continuing an upward trend over the past five years. Manufacturing experienced a dramatic increase at over five times the volume of 2022, doubling recent highs in 2018 and 2021. Warehouse construction bolstered continued growth accounting for 60% of the commercial sector, while multifamily continued a pattern of steady growth since 2019.

Construction Workforce: South Carolina’s construction workforce outpaced total construction starts for building and non-building construction for the first time since 2019, reinforcing trends towards labor force availability and cost stabilization. South Carolina’s unemployment rate continued to decrease slightly throughout 2023, with a year-end average of 3%, significantly lower than the national average of 3.69%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. ​ ​

U.S. Material Pricing: Material pricing continued stabilizing in the second half of 2023, with an average month-over-month change for tracked materials during the last six months at .29% and .1% for the calendar year of 2023. Diesel fuel remained the most volatile material in 2023 varying over 100% in month-to-month comparisons. Steel products pricing saw an average decrease of almost 6% in the last six months, a factor that could have a favorable impact on construction pricing in 2024.