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.
The United States has long been a mobile nation. Throughout America’s earliest days as a colonial outpost, the exploration of the frontier, the urbanization of industrial cities, and the postwar suburban boom, the freedom to venture out in search of…
Despite the current COVID-19 recession and the initial drop in home sales, the national housing market expanded significantly in 2020. According to a report by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, record low home inventories in tandem with…
The construction industry is struggling to attract young workers, contributing to a persistent labor shortage. Demand for new home construction continues to be high, and many construction companies are unable to find the workers needed in order to meet demand.…
What Is Preconstruction? Preconstruction is the term used to describe the process leading up to work on any construction job. In this initial planning phase, stakeholders set expectations, scope out the work, and plan a schedule for the project from…
Increasing global temperatures will bring changes to our environment, economy, and society, but one of the most pronounced effects will be the impact on sea level rise. A 2019 report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimated that global…
The COVID-19 pandemic is responsible for the largest wave of job losses since the Great Depression. The mass layoffs caused by social distancing regulations have brought new meaning to the term “essential worker.” Today’s essential workers often hold some of the…
Since the first major outbreak in March 2020, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have continued to unfold. One emerging trend is a drop in rent prices in select major metropolitan areas, countering the long term trend of sustained price…
Construction has long been a male-dominated field. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only about 13 percent of payroll employees in the construction industry are women—a number that has remained relatively stagnant since the 1990s. When also…
Amid record-breaking unemployment numbers resulting from COVID-19, millions of Americans are struggling to make their mortgage payments in 2020. In response to the crisis, the CARES Act invoked a moratorium on home foreclosures for all federally-backed mortgages that extends until…
Homeownership has long been considered part of the American dream. But first-time home buyers, especially millennials and Gen Xers, are facing an uphill battle when it comes to house hunting. This is in part because of a growing trend in…
Despite decades of record-setting home sales, owning a home has become increasingly difficult for the average worker. Mortgage interest rates are historically low, yet hourly earnings have failed to keep pace with rising housing costs. Data from the federal government…
According to data from Zillow, home prices in the U.S. have climbed over 42 percent in the last decade. While the country’s housing market as a whole recovered strongly from the lows of the Great Recession, the recovery was not evenly…
Despite widespread economic declines brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the real estate market has remained surprisingly strong, with record-setting increases in existing home sales in every region of the United States. Recent data indicates that monthly home sales increased by…
According to recently released data from the U.S. Census Bureau, total construction spending in the United States amounted to $667.9 billion during the first six months of 2020. While this total represents a 5 percent increase over the same period in…
After years of decline starting in the late 1990s, manufactured housing has been gaining in popularity over the past few years. Unlike site-built homes, which are directly constructed on a plot of land, manufactured homes are pre-assembled in factories and…
