America’s economy and its construction industry set itself a dauntingly high bar in 2023. Yet while growth predictions for 2024 are optimistic, sentiment is fading and headwinds are building.

Residential and commercial real estate face a growing series of challenges, albeit infrastructure’s outlook is bullish, buoyed by several policy commitments. At the same time, this polarization at an asset class level is replicated by geography, with the west coast lagging behind hotspots in the central south and a resilient east coast.

Input cost pressures, particularly from a materials perspective, are alleviating, but labor and machinery and equipment costs remain elevated. As a result, bid price escalation is recalibrating downwards, yet this is a slow process, bolstered by resilient demand conditions.