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Fortunately, non-residential construction price increases have cooled since the worst days of the COVID-19 pandemic, but 2024 may be tracking to end with some dinner.
This is the output of the latest edition of the Turner Building Cost Indexa data set with an 80-year history, which was up 3.6% in the third quarter of 2024 compared to a year ago, according to a Dec. 5 press release from the New York City-based contractor .
“Projects in several geographic regions are experiencing cost increases at higher rates than others due to robust construction activity located in these markets, as well as driven by numerous ongoing megaprojects,” Attilio Rivetti, vice president of Turner Construction, responsible of compiling the index, he said in a press release.
Rivetti noted that, in general, the prices of construction materials remained stable during the second and third quarters. But some items have outperformed others due to specific circumstances. For example, “mechanical and electrical equipment continue to experience longer lead times as well as continued cost increases due to high demand,” Rivetti said.
Turner Construction Cost Index to 3Q 2024
Turner’s price tracker has been steadily rising since late 2020.
Courtesy of Turner Construction
The index ended the third quarter with a marginal sequential increase of 0.77% over the second quarter, and was 3.64% higher for the year.
The magnitude of this increase contrasts with the most recent data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. In October, for example, non-building input prices rose 0.3% on a monthly basis, but were still 0.5% lower than a year ago. Until the end of the third quarter in September, these prices they were 2.1% lower.
It has Turner, the largest contractor in the country held the index for more than 80 years by collecting information from its projects at the national level, including labor rates, productivity, material prices and the competitiveness of local conditions. It may not necessarily match other published indexes, the firm says, because of its broader inclusion of factors.
