Cheap(er) Copper = Less Expensive New Homes?
“U.S. Housing Starts Fall 11% in October.”
—headline, WSJ (11/18/2015)
According to today’s Wall Street Journal, copper prices just fell to fresh six-year lows (about $2/lb.), in part due to softness in new home construction.
Which begs the reciprocal question: will falling copper prices reduce the cost of new homes?
Nah (unfortunately).
No Trickle-Down Effect
According to builders I work with regularly, even larger upper bracket new homes now use a minimal amount of copper, mostly for wiring.
What is supplanting copper plumbing?
PEX, a form of PVC.
P.S.: A good analogy would be Starbucks’ prices and the cost of coffee beans. My guess is that coffee is a relatively small expense relative to labor, marketing, rent, utilities, etc.
