U.S. construction firms are more stable than a year ago, writes Wall Street Journal real estate reporter Kris Hudson.
Based on data from U.K.-based company Creditsafe, who assessed the credit of roughly 1.7 million American construction firms, the number of firms ranked as high credit risks went down by 5.8 percent from last year, totaling roughly 250,000 firms. Meanwhile, the number of companies classified as low risk increased by 1.7 percent to roughly 1 million.
The credit-research firm’s findings mirrors a “generally improving outlook for the construction industry.” Construction spending hit its highest level since 2008, and home-construction starts increased by 13.8 percent year-over-year in the first eight months of 2015. Hudson writes that it’s “a positive sign for the U.S. economy—albeit incrementally so.”
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