July construction spending fell 3.8% y/y and input costs held at 7.1% — double the 3.5% rise in bid prices — as backlog slipped to 8.0 months and September Fed-hike odds jumped toward 60%.
Diesel added 39.5¢ in two weeks, construction wages decoupled to +5.2% while the private sector cooled, and ground-up credit is the one CRE category still tightening; a September cut is now unpriced.
Contractor backlog broke to 8.0 months across every region and size, input costs held at 7.2% YoY, and the 30-year Treasury hit a 19-year high — data centers (+46%) alone are carrying demand.
Contractor backlog fell to an 8-month low and manufacturing construction is −21.4% YoY, even as tariffed-metal input costs rose 7.4%. A margin market, not a growth market.
A soft July jobs report drove the 10-year Treasury to 4.63% and a September cut back into play — even as construction spending fell 3.2% YoY and data-center delivery risk surfaced.
The four lien waivers — conditional vs. unconditional, progress vs. final. Which to sign when, the 12 states that mandate a specific form, and how to keep your lien rights until the check clears.
Contractor Foreman is the low-cost all-in-one for small contractors; Syntecton is a Construction Operating System for mid-sized commercial GCs. User-capped plans vs. tiers with unlimited users.
Backlog held near a multi-year high in June 2026 — but only if you pour data centers. For the other 87% of contractors, the pipeline is thinner and margins are the worry. A look at the split.
A Construction Operating System connects the workflows, permissions, approvals and risk signals that run a construction project — not just the documents that describe it.
Manage pending construction changes by separating incurred cost, commitments, forecast cost, proposed and approved contract value, billing, collection.