With the economic slowdown and pending recession looming, are building materials on the rise (inflationary) or on the decrease? We are building a new home, but didn't know if we should wait or if now would actually be a good time to build.

Wait until the economy starts to straighten out before you build as you could end up with overextending yourself financially and end up losing your new home if you run into a scenerio of unforseen job layoffs, etc. big medical bills, etc. The cost of building materials should not be the factor here.

You can go to ENR.com which is Engineering News Record, then buildings, then cost indexes to see trends on building materials.