In some cases, that means you can lock in some of the construction costs up front as the home buyer.

When Brian Walsh, senior director of financial planning at SoFi, put down a down payment to build a new house last fall (which will be ready in July), he was able to lock in the full cost of construction. Lumber prices have since more than doubled, but Walsh was not responsible for the price difference. Instead, the builder must absorb this lost profit.

“We thought about doing an upgrade recently, but when the automaker quoted the price it was so high that we decided not to do it,” says Walsh. “I looked at how much this upgrade would have cost us if it was part of the original contract and it would have been about 20% less.”

Many builders mitigate the risk of rising material costs by adding construction contingencies to their contracts for price increases. Buyers who agree to terms that include price increases could face higher costs than expected.

And then there are people, like Mickeal Soliman, the CEO of New Jersey General Contractors and Builders, who aren’t even taking on new customers while material prices remain at such high levels.

“The wood is so crazy that I don’t sell a house until it’s built,” says Soliman. “When you start telling people that the cost of their construction is going to go up because wood prices go up, they start to wonder and worry. It’s not worth the shot. Now we are just building new houses and the price is the price when it’s done. “