Reed Construction Data (RCD) announced today that the year-to-date value of construction starts through April 2008, excluding residential contracts, totaled $83.5 billion, down 9.3% from the same period in 2007. Starts decreased 5.7% in April from a very strong March total. Allowing for seasonality, the trend has been clearly and slowly downward since last fall. RCD expects the current trend to continue for at least several more months even though rapidly rising construction inflation is boosting project costs.