Tracking Material Price Trends

This article explains the Material Trends panel on the Analyze tab — what the price indices show, how to read the trend chips and the chart, and why these national series are an early-warning signal rather than pricing for your project.

What the panel shows

Open it with Analyze → Material Trends. Its subtitle states the scope: "BLS Producer Price Index trends for common construction materials: steel, structural steel, concrete, lumber. Catch price moves before they hit the estimate."

These are national producer price series, not your project's costs. A banner at the top says so plainly: "General market indices. National producer price series for common construction materials. Not filtered to the materials in this estimate." Read the panel as market context, not as a rate you can drop into a line item.

Reading the trend chips

Each material series has a trend chip that carries four things:

• A direction — up, down, or flat.
• The label for the series.
• The ±X% (12mo) change over the trailing twelve months.
• The current index value.

The color follows what the move means for you: a rising series is red, because that material got more expensive nationally, and a falling series is green.

The chart

The Material Price Trend (BLS Producer Price Index) chart plots the series over time. It carries a Data through <month year> freshness note so you know how current the underlying data is — worth checking before you lean on a recent move.

How to read it

The panel's footer spells out the right way to use it: "These are index values, not dollars, so watch the direction and the 12-month change, not the absolute level. A rising line means that material got more expensive nationally. Use it as a prompt to check that your material rates are current, not as pricing for this project. Data sourced from the Bureau of Labor Statistics."

In short: the index level itself doesn't matter, but its movement does. A steel index climbing 12% over the year is a signal that your steel rates may be lagging the market — a reason to go verify a quote, not a number to paste into the estimate.

Using it as an early warning

Treat Material Trends as a prompt to refresh your rate library, not as project pricing. When a series shows a strong 12-month move — especially a rising one — go back to the corresponding material rate and confirm it still reflects a current quote. That keeps a stale rate from setting your cost while the market has moved underneath it.