Asphalt roofing prices hit a record in August 2026, up 7.6% since April

The Bureau of Labor Statistics producer price index for prepared asphalt and tar roofing and siding products rose to 374.1 in August 2026, the highest reading in a series that starts in 1926. The index, which tracks what manufacturers receive for asphalt roofing products, was up 0.5% from July, 3.9% from August 2025 and 7.6% from April. The August figure was released on September 10 and is preliminary.

The index measures prices at the factory, before the distributor and the roofer. The Census Bureau's definition of the industry behind these products, asphalt shingle and coating materials manufacturing, lists asphalt shingles, roofing felts, roofing cements and tar paper among what it makes.

The index has never been higher

The rise started in May. The index climbed 2.0% that month, 3.6% in June, 1.3% in July and 0.5% in August. Before May it had drifted down, falling 2.2% in January and 1.7% in March, and in May it still stood 0.9% below its level a year earlier. By August the change on the year was 3.9%, the largest since August 2025.

Asphalt jumped 32.9% in April, a month before roofing prices moved

Asphalt itself moved first. The industry definition describes these manufacturers as saturating mats and felts with asphalt from purchased asphaltic materials, and the BLS index for asphalt in its fuels and related products group jumped 32.9% from March to April 2026. It reached 326.5 in July, then fell 9.6% in August to 295.3, still 16.4% above August 2025. From March to August, the asphalt index rose 39.0% and the roofing index 8.0%.

Read side by side, the two series show the roofing index rising a month after the asphalt jump. August's 9.6% drop in asphalt did not show up in roofing prices, which rose 0.5% that month. If asphalt stays near its August level, the next few months of the roofing index will show whether the decline passes through. That is this site's reading of the two series.

From April to August, prices have risen every year since 2015

The roofing index is not seasonally adjusted, so some of the April-to-August rise is the season. Prices for these products have risen from April to August in every year since 2015. Over the ten years from 2016 through 2025, the median April-to-August gain was 2.0%. Measured against each year's April level, the index in June and July 2026 stood higher than in any year from 2015 through 2025.

The 7.6% gain in 2026 is the largest since 2021, when the index rose 8.7% over the same months. In the 22 years from 2005 through 2026, only 2008, 2011 and 2021 had larger April-to-August increases.

Caveats

These are national producer prices. They do not measure what a roofer pays a distributor or what an installed roof costs, and the index has no regional breakdown for southeastern Pennsylvania.

The index is not seasonally adjusted. That is why this article compares April to August across years instead of reading the 2026 rise on its own.

Producer price data are revised. The BLS guide says data are subject to monthly revisions for up to four months after first publication, so the values for May through August 2026 can still change. The next release, with September data, is scheduled for October 15, 2026.

The comparison between the asphalt index and the roofing index in this article is a comparison of their timing. It does not measure how much of the roofing index's rise came from asphalt.