CoreLogic Home Price Index — Nov. 3

CoreLogic will release its September Home Price Index on Tuesday, Nov. 3. Last month, CoreLogic announced home prices rose 1.2% between July and August. Those results confirmed CoreLogic's prediction of a slowdown in national home prices.

CoreLogic attributed the slowdown in home prices to higher mortgage rates and a slow, but steady, increase in single-family housing starts.

Residential industry experts have largely welcomed a slowdown in prices, as sky-high costs have kept first-time buyers from jumping into homeownership. Will Tuesday's report affirm CoreLogic's prediction of a continued slowdown in prices?

DBE shortage feature article — Nov. 3

Legal experts have called attention to the shortage of qualified disadvantaged business enterprise, or DBE, firms. Last month, one lawyer told Construction Dive that DBEs are a priority focus for prosecutors, as "the requirements are very high now, and it's been very hard over the years to really satisfy them. There aren't enough [DBE] firms out there that really can do the actual work."

Recently, three Pennsylvania executives were in the spotlight when they pleaded guilty to setting up a shell company, with a woman as figurehead, in order to win $19 million of federal and state transportation projects over 16 years. Each executive now faces five years in prison and hefty fines for taking advantage of the U.S. Department of Transportation's mandate to earmark 10% of its contracts for DBEs.

Construction Dive will delve further into the issue on Tuesday, Nov. 3 and look at why the shortage of DBEs might exist, what possible repercussions could occur, and how the construction industry can encourage more DBE participation.

BIM feature article — Nov. 5

Building Information Modeling has quickly become one of the most significant additions to the construction process. The technology is a major trend across the globe, as it takes construction out of the realm of two-dimensional plans and drawings and allows owners, contractors, architects and engineers to collaborate using 3-D images of floor plans, site plans or entire buildings. BIM can save money on design costs, scheduling and overall project management by reducing duplication of effort — as long as everyone is BIM-capable and working from the same model version.

The U.K. will require all government construction contractors to use BIM beginning in 2016, but an industry association survey found that only 16% of U.K. contractors are completely ready.

Is the U.S. headed toward a U.K.-like requirement for the technology? Check back on Thursday, Nov. 5 for Construction Dive's full article exploring the topic.