Real Estate Is Fastest-Growing Industry

Twelve of the 20 fastest-growing industries in the U.S. over the past year are related to real estate and construction, according to data from Sageworks, a financial information company. What’s more, all of the industries on the list that are related to construction saw sales growth at 2 percentage points to 15 percentage points above the average sales growth of all other privately held companies in Sageworks’ database.

Topping the list of fastest-growing U.S. industries: Offices of real estate agents and brokers. Also, among the top six on the list were residential builders, foundation contractors, and lumber wholesalers. In the commercial sector, nonresidential builders, engineering firms, and heavy-construction firms ranked within the top 11.

“The economy is just improving in general, and these industries are indicators that things are moving in the right direction,” says Sageworks analyst Chuck Nwokocha.

Source: “The Fastest-Growing Industries Over the Last Year,” Forbes.com (April 28, 2014)