Verisk Industry Trends for March 2021

Our pricing team continually monitors areas where catastrophes and storms have occurred to help determine how local pricing may be affected, such as the recent storms and freezing weather in Texas and surrounding states. Xactware will continue to monitor the effects of these and future catastrophes as they arise.

Additionally, the labor supporting events time assumptions for drive time and material/equipment pick up have been adjusted from 30 minutes to 60 minutes. This adjustment is based on a recent focused survey conducted with a large group of contractors in multiple states and provinces. The impact on unit pricing and hourly labor rates will vary based on feedback and recent random sample surveys. For example, in some trades where it is more common for contractors to quote a unit price over an hourly labor rate, it may be that the current retail hourly labor rate was adjusted downward to keep the unit price constant.

All reported percent changes are based on the averages that have been reported either since the February 2021 price list publication or from March 2020 to March 2021. The information reported here is based on a national average, and it is important to note that actual changes will vary within each pricing market. It is also important to remember that Xactware’s published pricing information is based on recently completed surveys and estimate transactions.

For more information about these trends over a longer period of time, read the Quarterly Pricing Trends or the Annual Property Report.

Lumber Increases

Since March 2020, lumber prices have dramatically increased 73.89 percent in the United States and 58.96 percent in Canada. During that time, several factors have contributed to a shortage in supply of common lumber materials, including Covid-19 and its associated restrictions, as well as an increase in building activity (including DIY builders) which didn’t slow down much since the beginning of the pandemic.  With this shortage of supply, prices for certain common lumber materials have rapidly increased. For example, sheathing materials have shown to be more volatile while following the upward trend, increasing 102.66 percent in the United States and 79.68 percent in Canada during the same time period. Xactware is actively monitoring lumber materials and making warranted adjustments from focused surveys with suppliers for each monthly price list publication.

Personal Protective Equipment

Due to the current impacts of COVID-19, Xactware is closely monitoring the cost of personal protective equipment (PPE). Since March 2020, the average national cost of PPE items increased 42 percent in the United States and 42 percent in Canada. Xactware will continue to monitor this situation and report changes as they arise. 

Local market conditions

Xactware makes every effort to ensure pricing information contained in this update represents market costs at the time of publication. Since actual market prices can vary and change rapidly, and since many factors can affect the cost of a project (including—but not limited to—labor, equipment, and material costs as well as the rates and application of sales tax), we strongly recommend customers monitor their local markets for any such changes and adjust their estimate pricing as deemed appropriate.

Gasoline prices in the U.S. and Canada

Since the February 2021 publication, gasoline prices increased 10.08 percent in the United States and 7.27 percent in Canada. When compared to March 2020, gasoline prices have increased 6.77 percent in the United States and 4.52 percent in Canada.

Because gasoline prices can change rapidly, Xactware recommends users monitor their local costs to determine whether repair or construction costs are affected. For further details, see the U.S. Department of Energy website.

                                                                                  * Canada prices are per liter

XactContents pricing update

Since the last price list update, the XactContents pricing team continued to improve the master item list in both the United States and Canada. They have added Booksamillion, Hamboards, Pyramid Air, and Aosom Canada as new vendors.

U.S.

 Canada

Changes to the March price list

We added new items to the March price lists under the following categories:

• CGN (Cont: Clean - General Items) - Items added for cleaning bicycles.
• ELS (Electrical - Special Systems) - Item added for a nurse call station wireless remote repeater.
• RFG (Roofing) - Item added for double coverage 30 lb. roofing felt for low slope roofs.
• WTR (Water Extraction & Remediation) - Item added for power distribution box equipment cost per week.

Customers can view price list modifications on the eService Center. XactAnalysis customers can see this same report by selecting the Price List Changes report in the Industry Trend Reports.

Pricing feedback

Pricing feedback is one of the ways Verisk ensures that the reported cost information reflects actual market prices. Users writing estimates outside program work can return feedback by regularly running the feedback utility within Xactimate, XactRemodel, or XactPRM. Visit our web page for more information about submitting pricing feedback or check out our Xpert Tip on how to submit feedback in Xactimate.

More information

Verisk’s pricing database is the foundation for many of our products. You can download a price list in Xactimate and XactRemodel, or assign a price list in XactPRM.

For more information about managing price lists, click Help in any Verisk product.