Cost of construction labor is finally coming down in Colorado

[clarkfan1979]

I'm in the process of getting a quote to rough-in plumbing to add a bathroom in a basement of a single family home rental. The manager of the plumbing company is a friend of a friend. They mostly do commercial plumbing, but they are currently slow, so they are bidding on my currently residential project, just to keep their remaining guys busy.

According to the plumber that was at my house (not the manager), they had 90 plumbers on payroll same time last year. Now they are at 40 plumbers and don't have much work right now. They are based out of Fort Collins, Co, which was a boom town with new construction for the past 5 years. Now that things are slowing, they are bidding jobs farther outside of Fort Collins (Denver and in the Mountains).

I got a rough estimate, but he has to come back one more time to get me a more precise final number. The rough estimate is about 50% of what I was originally expecting.

Anyone else seeing the cost of construction labor come down in similar boom towns?

[Dicey]

If it is, I'd bet a lot that it's temporary. Have you ever seen the movie, "A Day Without a Mexican"? It's old, but as relevant as when it was released, maybe more so now.

[SilentC]

I was wondering.  I spoke with a builder of a tiny custom development who hasn’t sold a lot in six months and they are waiting for rates to fall in 2025 (…) but it is obvious they are running out of work for their crews as older starts are almost complete.

[bacchi]

I was wondering.  I spoke with a builder of a tiny custom development who hasn’t sold a lot in six months and they are waiting for rates to fall in 2025 (…) but it is obvious they are running out of work for their crews as older starts are almost complete.

The builders I'm paying attention to are starting to sell off their lots.

[Dancin'Dog]

Construction seems to still be hot in NC.  They're building a ton of the big monolithic apartment buildings in Charlotte and I see plenty of new houses & developments going up out of town too.  Real estate is still busy here.  As long as prices keep rising I don't expect things to slow down.