Inflation has finally invaded Main Street in full force, snaking through suburban neighborhoods and rural downtowns, where U.S. consumers are seeing price hikes for every imaginable staple, from gas to groceries. Real estate developers, however, have been wrestling with erratic pricing for more than two years. For them, inflation first took root in the spring of 2020, when the cost of lumber skyrocketed, hitting unprecedented price points. Between April and September of 2020 alone, lumber prices escalated 175 percent. The upward spiral continued through 2021, as prices ballooned for copper, concrete, gypsum, and every other material essential to construction. Taken together, construction material prices jumped more than 20 percent from January 2021 to January 2022, on average, according to the Associated General Contractors of America (AGCA). In February of this year, AGCA issued a new Construction Inflation Alert that told members to prepare for continuing supply-chain disruptions
