Eye On Housing: Prices paid for goods used in residential construction climbed 1.8% in September (not seasonally adjusted) according to the latest Producer Price Index (PPI) report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The index for inputs to residential construction, goods less food and energy (i.e. the “core”)—a less volatile price measure—increased 2.2% over the month.
3 comments:
I have been noticing this uptick in prices on lumber and construction materials since the pandemic began, and it is really interesting to me. I wish this article had gotten into the “why” behind it a little more instead of just talking about the numbers, because that is what I am really interest in. I suppose there is a higher number of people doing their own DIY projects at home now that they have more free time one their hands, but could that really have an industry wide impact? I don’t know. This is also a time where more construction projects are able to be done while people are not in certain buildings/ areas, but this relies on these companies who have no customers right now to still have enough money to finance construction like this, which is also something that I do not see as very likely. It is interesting to see the things that have become more expensive or hard to get because of the pandemic. Hand sanitizer and cleaning products are obvious iones, but things like toilet paper and web cams were something I never thought would be affected in this way.
I had been budgeting a show recently with a local theatre program and was blown away how expensive materials were compared to previous shows that I have done previously. I felt crazy at first since I was pretty used to budgeting a show with not a ton of worry about material costs when it came to the wood. I do agree with the post above that I wish this article told me more about the why wood prices were so inflated although I can imagine it is because of the pandemic to an extent. I don’t think it is due to more people using wood for DIY projects but rather the lack of access to the plants and labor needed to process the wood to become workable lumber. I can also imagine that the lack of homes being bought right now and the whole economic crisis is not helping with lumber prices as it has become harder for that lumber that is being produced to be used, however I would imagine that prices would lower for lumber if that was the case. Most likely I think the inflated prices are due to the struggle multiple of industries are going through right now of not being able to operate during the pandemic. I wonder how much this will affect budgeting and shows in the future as so many theatre companies are struggling with staying afloat without having to worry about lumber prices.
This is a really interesting short little article about lumber prices in the current climate. I don’t quite understand if I’m being honest I wish they would go more into why these prices are jumping up during a pandemic. I assume this is compounded by the effects create by the virus. But I also wonder does have anything to do with additional demand. Construction was really the only industry in the US at least that wasn’t truly effected by Covid shutdowns and with people home more often I wonder if big box stores saw higher demand for soft lumber products. I also wonder if it’s simply a rebound spike in prices. As projects slowed in March and April they were put on hold until now and I wonder if the the construction industry is just super busy at the current moment and prices have fluctuated to meet demand, it’s something I want to know more about as theatre makers start to enter space and to determine wether this is going to be a longer term increase.
Post a Comment