Am I Going Crazy?

You may have been wandering around your local big box store recently and noticed something unexpected. The price of wood…is dropping?!

We found ourselves in Home Depot recently and saw 2×4’s priced at almost pre-pandemic levels! Now we know this might not remain at this low price and that it’s entirely possible that it was accidentally listed at this price, but it was a glimmer of hope regardless. Considering just a few months ago this same 2×4 was nosing the $9.00 mark I feel like this is a pleasant sign that project costs might actually level out to something reasonable sometime in the next months. We even saw a few weeks where a pressure-treated 2×4 was CHEAPER than a regular non-pressure-treated stud! That was a surprise for sure.

Should I Expect All Building Materials To Get Cheaper?

I wouldn’t go that far right now. Different industries were affected in different ways so the roadblocks that the lumber facilities faced might not be tied to the problems the plastic and copper folks were feeling. However, we did recently notice the price of 10ft sections of 3″ electrical conduit were down another $6.00 compared to where they were a few weeks ago. We saw a similar drop in price on 12/2 electrical wire as well. While these are all positive indicators I wouldn’t go calling your contractor just yet if budget is a big concern. While the individual prices of SOME materials are coming down there are still many building staples that are still far overpriced. Add in the extended lead times on many products and the fact that some regular inventory items are now “special order”, you may be better off waiting a few more months to start getting quotes.

If you just can’t wait to get started I would recommend walking around your local suppliers and price out what you think you might need. Then wait a week and go do that again. See if you notice a change in your favor. If so, maybe a conversation with your contractor is worthwhile.