Construction to Climb 2% in 2011

Total construction will rise about 2 percent in 2011 after falling 9 percent in 2010, according to a second quarter report from FMI, an engineering and construction industry research company. FMI forecasts 12 percent growth in single-family construction over depressed 2010 levels; however that figure is still 28.9 percent below a 2003 peak in residential construction. "Strict lending practices by banks, high inventories of unsold homes and the shadow inventory of unsettled foreclosures will continue to put downward pressure on new-home building," the report reads.