Construction Building Materials Shortage Lessens but Exceptions Still Exist

The National Association of Home Builders has been tracking the shortage of building materials and products since the 1990’s through a series of special questions on the survey for the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI).

In May 2022, the NAHB reported historically widespread shortages of building materials. Since then, most of those shortages have eased; however, the major exceptions are shortages of HVAC equipment and certain categories of ceramic materials (certain tiles, clay bricks and cement-based building materials), which have worsened.

In October 2022, the last time the NAHB surveyed builders about shortages, 80% of single-family builders reported either serious or some shortages of three categories of building products: appliances (88%), transformers (86%), and windows and doors (83%). Those were closely followed by HVAC (76%) and copper wiring at (65%).

The HMI survey in general shows the availability of lumber products improved remarkedly since May 2021, which is consistent with the concurrent decline in lumber prices. According to the latest Producer Price Index (November), softwood lumber prices have declined in seven of the previous eight months.