The last year has seen many of the more common building supplies go down in price. Cost reductions of as much as 150% have been noticed in some items, such as re-bar, which fell from a high of RD$2500 per hundredweight to the current price of RD$1000. A cubic meter of sand for mixing stucco is now, according to Diario Libre, “RD$6.00”, but this is an obvious mistake in the decimal point. DR1 contacted several construction firms, and current wholesale prices for sand are RD$300 per meter for regular mixing sand, and RD$400 per cubic meter for finer, stucco grade sand. This would indicate a retail price of RD$600 to the general public. An employee of Ferreteria Americana told Diario Libre that much of the lower pricing is due to the stronger peso. At one point, retail prices at the large hardware store were being quoted on the basis of a US dollar exchange rate of RD$56 pesos. Nails are down by RD$20.00, currently at RD$30.00 a pound; bags of cement are down to RD$120-RD$125 from a high of RD$250 and four-inch cement blocks are down by RD$2.00, currently at RD$14.00 each. Wood and tin roofing are other items being sold at lower prices.