• McGraw-Hill Construction has issued its mid-year update of its 2012 Construction Market Forecast and finds healthy gains in the dollar values expected by year's end for single-family and multifamily residential.
• The overall construction industry is on track to rise 2.5%, compared with being up 0.3% in 2011.
• Ongoing economic problems continue to be a drag on building, however. The forecast has a 20% decline in manufacturing work, a 2% decline in office-building construction, 10% less in institutional building, a 12% drop in heavy civil engineering, highways and bridges, and a 9% fall-off in environmental business.

From the article:

In its updated 2012 construction market forecast released on July 18, McGraw-Hill Construction sees an uneven recovery. MHC predicts a stronger-than-expected rebound in the housing market and a modest uptick in the private non-residential building market, dampened by continued weakness in the public building and non-building markets. ...