Lumber deflation settles into a single-digit percentage.
Dramatic year-over-over lumber price deflation is beginning to enter normal territory—at least, single-digit territory.
The Producer Price Index shows softwood lumber down 9.0 percent year-over-year unadjusted in January. It was negative 49.3 percent year-over-year in March 2023.
Overall, the Producer Price Index for final demand increased 0.3 percent in January, seasonally adjusted, according to the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
For the 12 months ended January 2024, prices for final demand less foods, energy, and trade services increased 2.6 percent.
Here are details of the movement of ten key hardware-and-building-supply commodities:
Overall construction input prices are 0.4% higher than a year ago, according to the Associated Builders and Contractors analysis of the data. (ABC is a Washington, D.C.-based trade group.)
“Construction materials prices surged in January, ending a streak of three consecutive monthly declines,” said ABC Chief Economist Anirban Basu. “While this represents the largest monthly increase since August 2023, input prices are essentially unchanged over the past year, up less than half a percentage point. As a result of relatively tame input costs, a plurality of contractors expects their profit margins to expand over the next six months, according to ABC’s Construction Confidence Index.”
