01 / Material outlierElevated
+16.9%Steel mill products
Year over year / June 2026
BLAST / Development Conditions
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Issue 001
Latest official readings
Costs / Capital / Labor / Activity
Development Conditions
A visual briefing on the forces surrounding a project—assembled from public data and read through practice.
The 10-second read
Five signals.
One uneven market.
Direction first. Detail and source records follow below.
02 / Broad materialsRising
+4.0%Materials for construction
Year over year / June 2026
03 / CapitalFirm
4.70%10-year Treasury
Daily par yield / August 11, 2026
04 / ActivitySofter
−3.2%Total construction spending
Year over year / June 2026
05 / Design pipelineContracting
47.3Architecture Billings Index
Below 50 / June 2026
These indicators describe different scopes and time periods. They are shown together for orientation—not blended into a single score. Not a bid, estimate, or forecast.
BLAST readWhat to do with it
The broad market is quiet. The components are not.
01
Price the mix.
Steel mill products rose 16.9% over the year while the broader materials-for-construction index rose 4.0%. A national average cannot describe one project's material exposure.
02
Read the sector.
Office spending was up 12.5%; manufacturing was down 21.4%. “Construction is down” is not a useful scope or procurement strategy.
03
Watch the interval.
The time between design decisions and bidding exposes a project to both material movement and capital conditions. Timing is part of the design problem.
Read the full monthly interpretation
Total construction spending was nearly unchanged from May and down 3.2% from a year earlier. That calm headline hides a much less even field.
In the three states where BLAST works, construction employment was slightly lower than a year earlier. New York's residential permits were sharply higher, driven largely by buildings with five or more units, while New Jersey and Pennsylvania were modestly lower year to date.
The practical reading is not that construction is simply up or down. Different building types are meeting different material, labor, financing, and pipeline conditions. The project's mix—and the time between a decision and a bid—matters more than the headline.
Materials / BLS Producer Price Index
Movement, not a price tag.
Each series has its own base period. The interactive chart re-indexes the selected series to 100 so its movement can be read clearly.
All materials
+4.0%Year over year
1 month +0.7%
Index 178.033
Steel
+16.9%Year over year
1 month +3.6%
Index 361.439
Lumber
+6.2%Year over year
1 month -0.6%
Index 282.733
Ready-mix
+1.9%Year over year
1 month +0.1%
Index 394.596
Compare
Window
Steel mill products / selected window
+18.3%Jul 2025—Jun 2026How to read it. Every selected series begins at 100. The line shows direction and relative movement—not installed cost.
Why it matters. This measures mill-product selling prices—not a fabricated, delivered, erected steel package. The difference matters when scope and schedule are still moving.
BLS series WPU1017 ↗View the values used in this chart
| Observation | BLS index | Selected-period index |
|---|---|---|
| Jul 2025 | 305.538 | 100.0 |
| Aug 2025 | 308.772 | 101.1 |
| Sep 2025 | 304.579 | 99.7 |
| Oct 2025 | 300.665 | 98.4 |
| Nov 2025 | 291.556 | 95.4 |
| Dec 2025 | 312.410 | 102.2 |
| Jan 2026 | 315.369 | 103.2 |
| Feb 2026 | 325.105 | 106.4 |
| Mar 2026 | 331.357 | 108.5 |
| Apr 2026 | 341.281 | 111.7 |
| May 2026 | 349.023 | 114.2 |
| Jun 2026 | 361.439 | 118.3 |
June 2026 producer price readings are preliminary and subject to revision. Values retrieved from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on August 11, 2026.
Capital
The cost of waiting is not only construction cost.
Federal funds target range
3.50–3.75%Maintained July 29, 2026Federal Reserve statement ↗10-year Treasury par yield
4.70%August 11, 2026U.S. Treasury data ↗Benchmarks provide context; they are not a loan quote. Actual financing depends on borrower, lender, structure, term, leverage, collateral, and market.
NJ / NY / PA
Three states. Two different signals.
Employment describes current workforce conditions. Residential permits describe authorized units—not starts, completions, or nonresidential work.
Construction employment
June 2026 / NSA / PreliminaryNew Jersey
167.0Kfrom June 2025 -1.8%
New York
396.1Kfrom June 2025 -0.2%
Pennsylvania
270.8Kfrom June 2025 -0.9%
Residential units permitted
June 2026 / RevisedNew Jersey
2,796YTD 15,714 -3.0%
New York
4,393YTD 22,446 +49.2%
Pennsylvania
2,545YTD 12,353 -2.2%
Permit totals can move sharply when one or two large multifamily buildings are authorized. Year-to-date context is shown beside the monthly count.
Activity / United States
One total. Several markets.
Total value of construction put in place, seasonally adjusted annual rate. June 2026 preliminary.
Total construction$2.167T
from May -0.1% · from June 2025 -3.2%
SectorAnnual rateYear over year
+12.5%
-5.9%
-21.4%
+1.7%
Annual rates are adjusted for seasonality, not price changes. Census cautions that month-to-month movements can be irregular and preliminary estimates are revised.
June 2026 Construction Spending release ↗Design pipeline / AIA
47.3
50no change
The June 2026 Architecture Billings Index remained below 50, indicating that a majority of responding firms continued to report declining billings. Project inquiries increased.
AIA describes the ABI as a leading indicator for nonresidential construction. BLAST links to the public monthly summary; it does not reproduce AIA's proprietary historical dataset.
Read AIA's June summary ↗Method / Limits
Use the record to ask a better question.
Definitions, limits, and how to use this page
This page assembles selected public indicators that can inform early project conversations. It does not provide construction pricing, investment advice, a market forecast, or a substitute for a contractor, estimator, lender, broker, economist, or project-specific due diligence.
Every reading names its source, observation period, and known status. Indexes describe defined markets and scopes. They do not automatically translate into the same percentage change in an installed project cost.
This first issue is a dated snapshot. Source agencies may revise preliminary values after publication.