Rising office vacancies and plant use rates are close to a record low. Under these conditions it is easy to see why there is little new construction. Maxwell Clarke of IDEAglobal Inc, said: "Construction isn't going to be adding a lot of growth, at least through the next quarter or so. November's construction numbers are down 13% from a year earlier."
Add to this the fact that the commercial default rate on mortgages held by US banks doubled to 3.4% in the third quarter. Defaults in the first nine months of 2009 are the highest since 1993.


