Prices of goods for home repair and remodeling hit a record in August 2026, with steel up 23.4%

Sat, 03 Oct 2026 16:05:59 -0400

Producer prices for the goods that go into home repair and remodeling reached a record in August 2026. The Bureau of Labor Statistics index of net inputs to residential maintenance and repair, goods, rose to 336.7, the highest value in a series that starts in 1986. It was up 1.1% from July and 7.7% from August 2025. The materials behind it rose by different amounts. Over the same year, the index for steel mill products rose 23.4% and plywood 10.7%, while gypsum products rose 0.2%. The August values are preliminary.

The index measures the prices that U.S. producers receive for the goods home repair and remodeling consume, weighted by how much of each the industry buys. BLS says its input indexes leave out labor and capital investment, so the index follows material prices only.

The repair and remodeling goods index reached a record in August 2026

Producer Price Index, net inputs to residential maintenance and repair, goods, index June 1986 = 100, not seasonally adjusted, monthly since January 2019

May through August 2026 can still be revised. Source: fred.stlouisfed.org

Which materials rose

This article follows five building materials that BLS prices in its commodity indexes: steel mill products, plywood, lumber, ready-mix concrete and gypsum products. Over the year to August 2026, steel mill products rose the most, from 308.8 to 381.2. Plywood was up 10.7% and lumber 7.6%. Ready-mix concrete rose 2.3%, and gypsum products 0.2%.

Producer price indexes for the repair and remodeling index and five materials, August 2026. Not seasonally adjusted; August is preliminary.
Series	FRED ID	August 2025	August 2026	Change on year (%)	Change since December 2025 (%)	Change since January 2019 (%)	High since 2019	Month of high	August 2026 vs high (%)
Repair and remodeling goods	WPUIP2321001	312.540	336.696	7.7%	8.1%	52.1%	336.696	2026-08	0.0%
Steel mill products	WPU1017	308.772	381.162	23.4%	22.0%	72.6%	449.711	2021-12	-15.2%
Plywood	WPU083	271.138	300.124	10.7%	11.4%	41.6%	471.300	2021-06	-36.3%
Lumber	WPU081	266.293	286.633	7.6%	10.6%	36.5%	462.000	2021-05	-38.0%
Ready-mix concrete	WPU1333	386.359	395.186	2.3%	2.3%	45.0%	395.954	2026-06	-0.2%
Gypsum products	WPU137	484.016	484.844	0.2%	1.0%	47.1%	487.363	2025-03	-0.5%

Source: fred.stlouisfed.org

Most of the rise came in 2026. From December 2025 to August 2026, the repair and remodeling index rose 8.1%, steel mill products 22.0%, plywood 11.4% and lumber 10.6%. The index rose in seven of the first eight months of the year, and its largest monthly gain was 2.1% in May. Its change on the year rose from 1.6% in January to 7.7% in August.

Repair and remodeling goods index, the last 13 months. May through August 2026 are preliminary.
Month	Index (June 1986=100)	Change on month (%)	Change on year (%)
2025-08	312.540	0.2%	1.8%
2025-09	312.346	-0.1%	2.6%
2025-10	311.797	-0.2%	2.0%
2025-11	312.932	0.4%	2.6%
2025-12	311.594	-0.4%	2.3%
2026-01	314.255	0.9%	1.6%
2026-02	317.766	1.1%	2.3%
2026-03	323.498	1.8%	4.0%
2026-04	327.551	1.3%	5.7%
2026-05	334.281	2.1%	7.6%
2026-06	331.294	-0.9%	6.6%
2026-07	333.171	0.6%	6.8%
2026-08	336.696	1.1%	7.7%

Source: fred.stlouisfed.org

The index for goods used in new residential construction set a record in the same month, at 349.0, up 7.8% on the year.

Month by month

Steel mill products rose in every month from December 2025 through August 2026, nine months in a row. The steel index jumped 7.2% in December, and its largest gain in 2026 was 4.1% in July. Plywood rose for ten months in a row, from November 2025 through August 2026, by between 0.1% and 2.8% a month.

Lumber moved in both directions. It rose 3.5% in April and 3.8% in July, and fell 1.5% in August. Ready-mix concrete and gypsum products changed by 1.0% or less in every month of 2026, apart from a 1.1% drop in gypsum products in May. The repair and remodeling index itself fell once in 2026, by 0.9% in June.

Change on the month, November 2025 to August 2026, in percent. May through August 2026 are preliminary.
Month	Repair and remodeling goods (%)	Steel mill products (%)	Plywood (%)	Lumber (%)	Ready-mix concrete (%)	Gypsum products (%)
2025-11	0.4%	-3.0%	0.7%	0.1%	-0.4%	-0.3%
2025-12	-0.4%	7.2%	0.1%	-0.1%	0.6%	-0.1%
2026-01	0.9%	0.9%	0.5%	2.4%	1.0%	0.0%
2026-02	1.1%	3.1%	0.6%	2.6%	0.0%	0.1%
2026-03	1.8%	1.9%	1.4%	-0.5%	0.2%	-0.2%
2026-04	1.3%	3.1%	2.8%	3.5%	0.5%	0.2%
2026-05	2.1%	2.5%	1.9%	0.3%	0.3%	-1.1%
2026-06	-0.9%	2.9%	1.4%	-0.4%	0.5%	0.5%
2026-07	0.6%	4.1%	0.9%	3.8%	-0.3%	0.9%
2026-08	1.1%	1.7%	1.5%	-1.5%	0.1%	0.7%

Source: fred.stlouisfed.org

Since 2019

Rebasing sets each series to 100 in the same starting month, so series with different base years can be compared on one scale. With January 2019 = 100, the repair and remodeling index stood at 152.1 in August 2026, a rise of 52.1%. It had reached an earlier high of 314.4 in June 2022, and August 2026 was 7.1% above that level. Of the five materials, only steel mill products rose more, by 72.6%. Gypsum products rose 47.1%, ready-mix concrete 45.0%, plywood 41.6% and lumber 36.5%.

Since January 2019, steel rose 72.6% and the repair index 52.1%

Producer price indexes rebased so that January 2019 equals 100, not seasonally adjusted, monthly

Rebasing computed by Conshy Contractor from BLS data. Source: fred.stlouisfed.org

Wood and steel are still below their 2021 peaks

Wood and steel prices set their highs in 2021. Lumber peaked at 462.0 in May 2021 and in August 2026 stood 38.0% below that level. Plywood peaked at 471.3 in June 2021 and stood 36.3% below it. Steel mill products peaked at 449.7 in December 2021 and stood 15.2% below.

The slower-moving materials sit near their highs. Gypsum products reached 487.4 in March 2025 and were 0.5% below that in August 2026. Ready-mix concrete set its high in June 2026, at 396.0, and was 0.2% below it in August.

Gypsum products and ready-mix concrete were higher at the end of 2025 than in mid-2022, while lumber, plywood and steel stayed well below their 2021 peaks before rising again in 2026. That is this site’s reading of the published series. The article does not use the weights BLS gives each material, so it cannot say how much any one of them added to the index.

What this means for a remodeling quote

A remodeling quote covers labor, overhead and scope as well as materials, as the guide to what remodeling costs explains. The materials line is the part these indexes follow.

Ask how long the quote’s price holds, and for the main materials as separate lines. A price written in December 2025 and signed in August 2026 covers a span when this index rose 8.1%.
Under Pennsylvania’s Home Improvement Consumer Protection Act, a contractor cannot depart from the plans or specifications in any material way without a written change order, dated and signed by both of you, that states the price change. The change orders guide covers how to write one.
If a contract adjusts the price with a published index, the BLS guide to price adjustment advises naming the index and the base and comparison months, and fixing the date the calculation is made, since recent months are revised.

Caveats

These are national producer prices. They do not measure what a contractor pays a supplier or what you pay for finished work, and they have no breakdown for southeastern Pennsylvania.

The index covers goods only. Labor is outside it.

The indexes are not seasonally adjusted, so some month-to-month movement is seasonal. The changes on the year compare the same month.

Producer price data are revised. The BLS guide says not seasonally adjusted data are subject to revision for up to four months after first publication, so May through August 2026 can still change. The next release, with September data, is scheduled for October 15, 2026.

The five materials were chosen by this site from the commodity indexes BLS publishes. They are not the full list of goods in the index.

Producer Price Index | Conshy Contractor

Prices of goods for home repair and remodeling hit a record in August 2026, with steel up 23.4%

Which materials rose

Month by month

Since 2019

Wood and steel are still below their 2021 peaks

What this means for a remodeling quote

Caveats