Construction material prices held steady in November and are up 0.5% on a year-over-year basis, according to Associated Builders and Contractors. Prices in November were 39% higher than in February 2020.
Nonresidential construction material prices rose 0.1% from October to November and increased 0.3% compared with one year ago. Softwood lumber prices are up 11.8% year over year and up 3.4% from October to November. Iron and steel prices are down 5.5% year over year and up 0.6% for the month. Natural gas rose 2.6% from October to November and fell 17.3% year over year. Crude petroleum fell 3.3% for the month and is down 11.9% year over year.
“Construction input prices are up just 0.2% through the first 11 months of 2024,” said ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu. “However, that encouraging year-to-date price growth primarily reflects declining energy prices and obscures price escalation that has occurred for specific materials. Prices for copper wire and cable and softwood lumber, for instance, are up nearly 12% year over year.
“While input prices have, in total, been well behaved, yesterday’s Consumer Price Index release indicated that economywide inflation reaccelerated in November,” Basu continued. “The year-over-year rate of price increase, at 2.7%, remains close to the Federal Reserve’s 2.0% target, yet the recent uptick suggests that inflation may prove more stubborn than previously expected. This rebound in inflation aside, contractors remain optimistic about the coming year, with greater than 60% expecting their sales to increase over the next six months, according to ABC’s Construction Confidence Index.”
