Dive Brief:

• A 50% slowdown in oil drilling in North Dakota over the last year hasn’t cooled construction activity, The Bismarck Tribune reported this week.

• The newspaper’s analysis of building permits in Bismarck found that between January and April, just two fewer applications for single-family homes were issued than during the same months of 2014. Industrial building permits more than doubled, from 15 in the first four months of 2014 to 33 so far this year. And 17 commercial building permits have been issued, compared with 20 last year.

• Likewise, although economists predicted that Houston's housing market would wane as oil production slowed, homebuilders there applied for more building permits in the first quarter of 2015 than in the first three months of last year, according to the Houston Business Journal. The Journal said the city issued more homebuilding permits in the first quarter than during any quarter since the housing crisis began in 2008.

Dive Insight:

Enough oil production remains in both cities to create demand for new buildings. Plus, The Tribune pointed out, "There’s certainly more to the state’s economy than just oil."