Category Research

Browse reports prepared by our research team on the construction industry. We use data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, among other sources, to provide readers with up-to-date data and statistics relevant to the construction industry.

Employment | Wages | Residential Construction | Homebuyers | Mortgages

Suburban home

Homebuyers in These U.S. Cities Get the Best Mortgage Rates

As the cost of homeownership continues to grow out of reach for many Americans, mortgage interest rates have become a central concern for both homebuyers and policymakers. These are the U.S. locations where buyers are getting the best mortgage rates.
Suburban home

Cities With the Highest Home Price-to-Income Ratios

Housing is the largest regular expenditure for most households, so the failure of wages to keep up with housing prices can make housing costs even more expensive in real dollars. To find the locations with the highest home price-to-income ratios, researchers ranked locations by the median home price divided by the median annual household income.
Construction worker

Cities With the Most Construction Workers

Construction workers remain a crucial component of the American workforce, and contribute significantly to the country's economic development. Using the latest data available, researchers at Construction Coverage identified the U.S. states and metros with the largest shares of employment in the construction industry.
New home construction

Cities With the Biggest Year-Over-Year Increase in Residential Construction

Some locations are investing more in new residential construction than others compared to the same time last year. We calculated the percentage change in the value of new residential housing units authorized by permit-issuing places from Q4 2022 to Q4 2023, then ranked U.S. metros and states accordingly.
Suburban home

The Best U.S. Cities To Find a Starter Home

While conditions are challenging overall for new buyers, some parts of the U.S. are more favorable than others. To determine the best places to find a starter home, researchers calculated a composite score based on the percentage of homes with three or fewer bedrooms, the monthly starter-size home mortgage payment as a percentage of median renter income, median sale price of homes with three or fewer bedrooms, supply of homes, and the homeownership rate for under-35 householders. Metros and states were then ranked accordingly.
Financial stress

U.S. Cities Most Impacted by High Interest Rates

The estimated monthly mortgage payment for a median-priced U.S. home is about 54% higher today than it was just two years ago. These are the states and metros who have been most impacted by high interest rates.
New home

U.S. Counties That Have Built the Most Housing Over the Past Decade

The need for affordable housing in the United States has never been greater. After adjusting for inflation, home prices are nearly 60% higher than they were 10 years ago, and roughly 25% of renters spend over 50% of their income on rent. But while the national supply of housing has been lagging overall, some parts of the country have managed to add homes faster than others.
Black man thinking

American Cities With the Largest Minority Homeownership Gap

Nationally, the minority homeownership gap—defined here as the difference between the White homeownership rate and the minority homeownership rate—has exceeded 20 percentage points for at least the past two decades. Locally, this gap varies due to factors such as an area’s demographic makeup, housing costs, employment opportunities, and historical homeownership rates. Researchers identified the locations with the largest minority homeownership gap.
Suburban homes

U.S. Cities With the Most Single-Family Homes

Although there was a modest rebound in single-family construction post-2015, which gained momentum during the pandemic, this surge has since subsided. In 2023, only 61.8% of new construction was allocated to single-family units. This ongoing underinvestment has led to an estimated shortfall of approximately 6.5 million single-family homes—a primary contributor to elevated housing prices. Researchers calculated the percentage of housing units that are single-family and ranked locations accordingly.
Cellular tower repair

The Fastest-Growing Jobs in Construction

A series of COVID-19 relief packages in 2020 and 2021 has sent billions of dollars flowing to the construction industry, but the centerpiece of federal investment was a $1.9 trillion infrastructure bill signed into law in late 2021. The bipartisan package will fund major new construction projects for years to come. These are the construction occupations that are forecasted the most growth in the next 10 years.
Oil reserves

States With the Most Oil Reserves

Advances in geological understanding and technology like horizontal drilling and fracking have transformed the U.S.'s oil business. Imports have fallen sharply, while production and exports have grown. In fact, the U.S. became a net exporter of oil for the first time ever in 2020, and average oil production in 2023 was nearly 22 million barrels per day. These are the U.S.'s biggest oil states.
Suburban home

The Hottest Real Estate Markets in the U.S.

While 2023 marked a notably more subdued year for real estate compared to the preceding years, recent signs suggest market conditions could be heating up again—though some geographies are seeing more activity than others. These are the locations with the hottest real estate markets in 2024.
Construction supervisor

The Best-Paying Construction Jobs in the U.S.

The construction industry has experienced a period of heightened activity over the past several years, and researchers set out to find the best-paying construction occupations. They analyzed the most common jobs using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Those occupations were ranked according to their median hourly wage.
Female construction worker

Cities With the Most Women in Construction

Construction has long been a male-dominated field. And while there is still a long way to go to achieve proportional representation, the share of female employment in construction has been increasing in recent years. These are the states with the most female construction workers.
Historic homes

American Cities With the Oldest Homes

The U.S. is short between 2.3 and 6.5 million housing units relative to the needs of the current population. And with fewer new homes coming onto the market, many buyers are increasingly competing for older homes. Researchers calculated the median age of residential housing units based on the year each unit was built, and ranked U.S. cities and states accordingly.