Five years on, is housing back by a little, a lot?

Housing is looking pretty good if you talk about sales of existing homes and not nearly as shiny if you focus on new construction.

By Ron Gallagher • Sept. 16, 2013

Commercial construction picking up in Indiana's steel region

A gradual recovery in the commercial construction sector in northwest Indiana and areas south of Chicago is doubly good news for the area where steel is made.

By Ron Gallagher • Sept. 15, 2013

Explore the Trendline➔

Top 5 stories from Construction Dive

Construction Dive editors curate some of the industry’s top stories from this year.

By Construction Dive staff

Anecdotal economic outlooks can be useful

Official economic reports can be good, but there are other ways to assess what's going on—like steaks dinners and scrap metal.

By Ron Gallagher • Sept. 13, 2013

Tragedy in the Midwest and useless size: The week's most read construction news

Catch up on some important stories this week with the posts our readers read the most.

By Brian Warmoth • Sept. 13, 2013

Pause in home purchases correlates with softening consumer confidence

At Fannie Mae, they see a reduction in mortgage applications and purchase contracts as linked to declining consumer confidence and interest-rate worries.

By Ron Gallagher • Sept. 10, 2013

Limit on federally insurable mortgages may drop

Officials may shave several thousand dollars off the highest loans that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can insure for lenders.

By Ron Gallagher • Sept. 9, 2013

When reduced construction unemployment is a bad thing

Lower unemployment normally would be a cause for celebration, but a drop in the number for the construction industry may not be a good sign.

By Ron Gallagher • Sept. 9, 2013

NAHB's rankings for improving metro areas hits 291, best yet.

An index that was created to measure recovery from the recession reached its highest measure this month as 291 metro markets qualified as "improving."

By Ron Gallagher • Sept. 9, 2013

Survey: Finding qualified workers is a headache for 74% of contractors

Associated General Contractors says that information from nearly 700 contractors, the bulk of them in 15 states, shows that recruiting craft workers is rough.

By Ron Gallagher • Sept. 5, 2013

It's cheaper to borrow big for a home than to stay small

The mortgage world has turned upside down, with lower rates on loans too big to guarantee than on so-called "conforming" loans too small to fail.

By Ron Gallagher • Sept. 5, 2013

Texas proposal for beat-up rural roads: Forget pavement

Trucks servicing the oil and gas boom are beating up Texas farm-to-market roads something fierce, and the state says the answer should be to make them officially unpaved roads.

By Ron Gallagher • Sept. 4, 2013

Builders say lots are in short supply, especially the best ones

Home demand doesn't matter if there's no place to build, and a new survey indicates that could be a problem.

By Ron Gallagher • Sept. 4, 2013

The beat goes on: CoreLogic cites 17th month of home-price increases

Data firm CoreLogic reports that July saw a 12.4% year-over-year increase in home prices, which marked the 17th consecutive month that prices have been higher than the year before.

By Ron Gallagher • Sept. 3, 2013

July's private construction spending hits 4-year high

The pattern of shrinking public construction spending held in July, but private spending—led as always lately by residential—reached levels not seen since 2009.

By Ron Gallagher • Sept. 3, 2013

Index of apartment- and condo-builders' confidence rises to record high

The Multifamily Production Index compiled by the National Association of Home Builders to measure the apartment and condo market rose to 60 in the second quarter.

By Ron Gallagher • Aug. 29, 2013

New-home sizes hit record as upscale buyers dominate the recovery

A trend toward smaller houses is in full retreat, as the average new home is bigger than what was going up during the boom.

By Ron Gallagher • Aug. 27, 2013

Optimism fails to make Kansas City urban retail site a reality

Kansas City, Mo., had high hopes that replacing 60 homes and businesses with a multi-use called Citadel Plaza, but all it has now is vacant lots in a depressed neighborhood.

By Ron Gallagher • Aug. 27, 2013

Planned power plant in Maryland would spawn 700-800 construction jobs

There's good news for the commercial construction sector in southern Maryland: A Dallas-based investment company called Panda Power Funds says it is going to build a power plant there.

By Ron Gallagher • Aug. 26, 2013

Growth in housing market held back by shortage of workers

There is a pronounced lack of skilled construction workers, especially in the Phoenix and Seattle areas.

By Nicole Wrona • Aug. 26, 2013

A measure of recession: How old are the pickups on the roads?

You can see one sign of the U.S. recession every time you drive down the road—or perhaps look in the parking lot—light-duty trucks in the U.S. are getting older.

By Ron Gallagher • Aug. 21, 2013

Contractors' work backlog rising, but the news isn't all positive

Good reason for optimism still comes in the context of weak U.S. economic growth.

By Ron Gallagher • Aug. 21, 2013

It was a tough quarter for several engineering and construction companies

Stock analysts found several publicly traded companies' figures disappointing—and even good results to be so-so.

By Ron Gallagher • Aug. 21, 2013

Builder confidence for August marks an eight-year high nationally

Builders in the Northeast may be feeling a little bitter, or at least left out, as the national confidence index rose three more points to 59, but the region was stuck at a glum 39.

By Ron Gallagher • Aug. 19, 2013

Multifamily and single-family didn't share success in July

Multifamily was the star of the month, as that part of the residential sector recovered, but single-family saw different results.

By Ron Gallagher • Aug. 18, 2013

Common-area lighting requires some thinking in commercial refits

Contractors who are helping clients through a commercial rehabilitation need to think through conventional lighting when weighing it against new technologies.

By Ron Gallagher • Aug. 16, 2013