Dive Brief:

• In the latest Producer Price Index from the government, the overall prices for construction materials fell 0.5% in November from October's mark.
• Within that headline number, nonresidential materials were down 0.6%, and that put them 0.7% lower than in November 2012.
• Reflecting the speedier recovery of housing since the recession, some materials in high demand did go up, such as another 2.6% increase in softwood lumber, bringing that to 12.8% higher than a year ago.

Dive Insight:

Anirban Basu, the chief economist for Associated Builders and Contractors, said the November report showed "another month of remarkable stability" in materials prices. The situation contradicts what many investors expected to happen this year because they thought post-recover monetary policies would encourage inflation. Basu advises not to expect 2014 to be as kind to contractor's bottom lines, however.