Building Material Prices Post Record Monthly Decline in April

Economics
Published

Prices paid for goods used in residential construction decreased 4.1% in April (not seasonally adjusted) — the largest monthly decline on record — according to the latest Producer Price Index (PPI) report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The year-to-date decline (-5.4%) in residential construction inputs prices is more than three times larger than the previous record (-1.3% in 2009).

Price changes for key materials

Gypsum: Prices paid for gypsum products decreased 1.3% in April (seasonally adjusted) after climbing 2.2% in March. Gypsum product prices have declined 4.4% year-to-date, the largest January-to-April decrease since seasonally adjusted data became available in 2012. Prices are down 9.5% from the most recent peak in March 2018.

Softwood lumber:Although the PPI report shows that softwood lumber prices declined 10.8% (seasonally adjusted) in April, the decrease is at odds with recent prices reported by Random Lengths. According to their weekly data, prices fell a more modest 2.7% over the month.

The discrepancy between the BLS and Random Lengths data stems from known differences in survey timing. NAHB economists anticipated this in last month’s PPI post, stating that the decline over the last 10 days of March “should be captured in next month’s PPI report.”

Ready-mix concrete: Prices paid for ready-mix concrete (RMC) decreased 0.4% in April (seasonally adjusted), following a 0.7% increase in March. The RMC index has increased 1.1% year-to-date, which is close to the historical average year-to-date price change in April.

NAHB economist David Logan provides further analysis in this Eye on Housing blog post.

Subscribe to NAHBNow

Log in or create account to subscribe to notifications of new posts.

Log in to subscribe

Latest from NAHBNow

Housing Affordability

Oct 21, 2025

The Fight for Housing Affordability: NAHB Spotlights Key Hurdles

NAHB CEO Jim Tobin recently appeared on the Builder Straight Talk podcast to highlight the housing affordability hurdles builders face in the current market, and how the Federation is working at the local, state and national levels to address them.

Sponsored Content

Oct 21, 2025

Why Builders Overpay for Land and How to Protect Your Margins

Land is the single largest cost driver in any home building project. But even experienced acquisition teams sometimes overpay. This is often the result of a lack of context and outdated data.

View all

Latest Economic News

Economics

Oct 20, 2025

Non-Conventional Financing for New Home Sales Loses Ground in 2024

Nationwide, the share of non-conventional financing for new home sales accounted for 31% of the market per NAHB analysis of the 2024 Census Bureau Survey of Construction (SOC) data. This is 1.7 percentage point lower than the 2023 share of 32.4%. As in previous years, conventional financing dominated the market at 69.3% of sales, higher than the 2023 share of 67.6%.

Economics

Oct 17, 2025

Better Growth, Larger Deficits: CBO Fiscal Outlook

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is a key nonpartisan score keeper that measures the effects of policy changes by the Federal Government. With several policy changes since January of this year, including the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), stricter immigration, and higher tariffs, the CBO updated its economic projections through 2028.

Economics

Oct 16, 2025

Amid Market Challenges, Builder Expectations Rise in October

Even as builders continue to grapple with market and macroeconomic uncertainty, sentiment levels posted a solid gain in October as future sales expectations surpassed the 50-point breakeven mark for the first time since last January.