Dive summary:

• McGraw-Hill's analyses of U.S. construction for 2013 shows a 6% growth rate overall, though federal fiscal problems create some fog through which that growth has to go.
• The predicted increase to total construction business of $483.7 billion assumes that the government will not let all Bush-era tax cuts die after Jan. 2 and also will not let currently mandated spending cuts all go into effect.
• Housing, which has been growing in this half of 2012, underpins the prediction along with private non-residential growth to make up for the laggard institutional and government sectors.

From the article:

The construction industry next year will continue its slow climb out of a long and deep recession, but the recovery is unsteady and remains vulnerable to factors such as the cloudy federal fiscal picture, according to McGraw-Hill Construction’s 2013 forecast, which was released at its annual Outlook conference in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 24. ...