Building Material Prices Increase

Although the drop in softwood lumber prices since last year is helping bring costs down (after having driven them up drastically earlier in 2021), the decline has been offset by large increases in the prices of several other building material products.

The prices of these 10 materials have increased the most thus far, and all are up at least 30%:

• Steel mill products
• Building paper and building board mill products
• Asphalt
• Plastic water pipe
• Fertilizer materials
• Laminated veneer lumber
• Thermoplastic resins and plastics
• Structural metal joists and concrete reinforcing bars Wood window and door frames
• Copper pipe and tube

Over the first seven months of 2021, the majority of these products’ prices have increased many times more than they did in 2020. The price change of steel mill products is the most glaring example, up 81.3% year to date following a 2020 increase of 11.1%.

Source NAHB.org