Construction Material Cost Tracker
Producer prices for the materials contractors buy — lumber, steel, concrete, drywall, roofing — and how far they've climbed (BLS PPI).
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Producer Price Index (September 2026)
Key findings
The materials that go into a building are still far more expensive than before the pandemic. The BLS overall construction-materials index is up about 11% over the past year and roughly 58% since 2020.
Steel is the biggest mover — steel mill products are up about 28% year over year and have more than doubled (+111%) since 2020. Concrete, drywall, and roofing have risen only modestly in the past year but remain roughly 45–50% above their 2020 levels. Lumber is the outlier: after spiking and crashing, it's up about 9% year over year but only ~14% above 2020 — essentially a round trip.
For contractors bidding work, the lesson is that most material costs have reset to a permanently higher baseline, even where month-to-month prices have calmed.
The rankings
| Material | Price index (Sep 2026) | 12-month change | Change since 2020 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Construction materials (overall) | 378.6 | +11.0% | +58% |
| Lumber | 282.3 | +8.7% | +14% |
| Steel mill products | 388.6 | +27.6% | +111% |
| Concrete products | 410.3 | +4.2% | +47% |
| Gypsum / drywall | 488.9 | +1.4% | +52% |
| Asphalt roofing & siding | 366.4 | +2.7% | +47% |
Methodology
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Producer Price Index (PPI) commodity indices (base 1982=100), not seasonally adjusted, pulled via the BLS public API. Latest data: September 2026 (preliminary, subject to revision). “12-month change” compares the latest month to the same month a year earlier; “change since 2020” compares it to the 2020 annual average.
October 27, 2026