Although the recent drop in softwood lumber prices since mid-May is helping bring costs down (after having driven them up drastically earlier in the year), the decline has been offset by large increases in the prices of several other building material products.

The National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) reports that the prices of building paper and building board mill products, laminated veneer lumber, thermoplastic resins and plastics materials, and wood window and door frames are among those products that have increased the most in 2021, and all are up at least 30%.

Over the first seven months of 2021, the NAHB says the majority of these products’ prices have increased many times more than they did in 2020. The prices of a subset of building materials were stable in 2020 but have seen substantial price increases in 2021.

Some building materials and inputs to building materials have seen especially acute increases over the last three months. Of the goods analyzed, laminated veneer lumber, building paper and building board mill products, and other engineered structural wood members were among the nine that experienced price increases exceeding 20% between April and July.