Calculators/Material prices
US construction material prices
Current price estimates and real price trends for the materials our calculators work with, tracked from official federal index data. Updated monthly.
Price trends
| Material | Est. price | 1 month | 1 year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steel rebarper #4 x 20 ft bar | $12.00 | ▲ 1.7% | ▲ 23.4% |
| Softwood plywoodper 4x8 ft sheet, 1/2 in | $34.00 | ▲ 1.7% | ▲ 12.5% |
| Framing lumberper 2x4 x 8 ft stud | $4.45 | ▼ 1.5% | ▲ 7.6% |
| Hot mix asphaltper ton | $130.00 | ▲ 0.4% | ▲ 7.0% |
| Sand and gravelper ton | $45.00 | ▼ 0.3% | ▲ 6.8% |
| Portland cementper 94 lb bag | $14.50 | — | ▲ 6.2% |
| Asphalt roofing shinglesper roofing square | $122.00 | ▲ 0.4% | ▲ 5.9% |
| Gypsum drywallper 4x8 ft sheet, 1/2 in | $16.50 | ▲ 0.5% | ▲ 3.9% |
| Clay brickper modular brick | $0.72 | — | ▲ 3.4% |
| Concrete block (CMU)per 8x8x16 block | $2.25 | — | ▲ 3.4% |
| Ready-mix concreteper cubic yard | $165.00 | ▲ 0.1% | ▲ 2.3% |
| Mineral wool insulationper R-13 batt, per ft2 | $0.78 | ▲ 0.5% | ▲ 1.1% |
| Interior paintper gallon | $41.00 | — | ▲ 0.3% |
Index data through 2026-08-01. Percentages are changes in the official Producer Price Index, not in our dollar estimates.
Ready-mix concrete by region
The index is national, but construction costs are not. These figures apply published regional cost differentials to the national average.
Where these numbers come from
Price movements are taken from the Producer Price Index published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and served through FRED, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis data service. These are official federal statistics, updated monthly, with series running back decades.
The PPI measures change, not dollars. To turn an index into a usable price, each material is anchored to a national average price at a known date and scaled by the index from there. The trend is measured data. The dollar level is a stated assumption. We separate the two rather than pretending otherwise.
These are planning estimates for material only. They exclude labour, delivery, equipment and taxes, and your local supplier's quote is the number that actually matters. Use these to sanity-check a quote, not to replace one.
What the current data shows
Over the last twelve months the sharpest move has been in steel rebar, up 23.4%. Material costs move independently of each other: steel and timber respond to commodity and tariff cycles, while concrete and aggregate track energy and freight prices more closely.
If you are budgeting a project several months out, the direction of travel matters as much as today's number. A quote held for 30 days is worth more than it looks when a material is climbing.