Dive Brief:

• The overall picture for construction materials had them rising 0.1% from August to September and 0.6% above September 2012.
• Softwood lumber was a notable outlier, going up 1.2% month over month and 9.8% year over year.
• For nonresidential construction, iron and steel, asphalt, siding and steel mill products were all up less than 0.4% for the month.

Dive Insight:

ABC is the industry group that closely tracks the cost of materials, and its chief economist, Anirban Basu, says that small increases and even some decreases are a golden lining to the less-than-smooth federal budget process and to economic growth that's running below what economists and political leaders wanted to see. "If the United States were to find a more permanent solution for its budgetary issues, the pace of materials price increases likely would accelerate," Basu said, because economic recovery in  Europe and growth in China are upward pressures on prices.