The Producer Price Index for finished goods moved down substantially during the last five months of 2008, and year-over-year changes for January and February were solidly in the red zone. Producer prices at earlier intermediate and crude stages of production have been throwing off large negatives in recent months. NAHB stated those downward pressures will make their way into the finished goods measure as the year rolls along.

The core Consumer Price Index (excluding prices of food and direct energy) has shown year-over-year gains of less than 2 percent for the past three months, and the chain-core version allowing for substitution with the market basket of goods and services has been just over 1 percent ?EUR??,,????'??+ not far from price stability. – Courtesy of NAHB