2015 shaping up to be good year for new construction in Boston

Residential construction spending in the Boston area was down 1 percent year-over-year in May, but so far in 2015 is 23 percent ahead of where it was last year.

Those were the two big stats from the latest Dodge Data & Analytics report, a monthly look at residential construction activity in the nation’s largest metro areas.

Boston Agent assembled a series of graphs on Dodge Data’s findings. Below is total residential construction spending in May:

May was a weaker month of new construction in Boston, with its $285-million rate only ahead of Miami and San Francisco, among large metro areas.

Boston’s year-over-year growth was also disappointing:

Year-over-year construction, however, can vary wildly from month to month, so it’s not the most reliable measurement of an area’s market.

Year-to-date numbers, by contrast, smooth over that volatility and offer a more accurate view of an area’s construction market:

Now, things do not look so bad for Boston. Will 2015’s construction, though, be enough to tackle the area’s affordability crisis?