Posted on 03/31/2018 9:27:57 AM PDT by daniel1212
A lumber shortage has pushed prices to record highs as builders stock up for what is expected to be one of the busiest construction seasons in years.
Builders say the higher lumber costs are making homes more expensive. Lumber prices started rising last year after fires destroyed prime forests and a trade dispute between the U.S. and Canada restricted supplies. Now a shortage of railcars and trucks is forcing builders to pay even more.
“We are in a lumber supply crisis,” said Stinson Dean, a broker in Kansas City, Mo., who ships wood from sawmills to lumber yards, in a note to clients. “None of us have experienced a market like this.
Marc Towne of Classic Homes, which builds midrange to high-end houses in Colorado Springs, Colo., said he is spending $8,500 more on lumber for a typical home than a year ago, an increase of almost 40%..
That run-up began with a trade dispute between the U.S. and Canada, which provides about a third of U.S. timber, leaving many dealers hesitant to restock at elevated prices. The Trump administration eventually instituted tariffs of 20% or more on Canadian sawmills.
Problems mounted. The worst wildfires on record hit Canada’s Pacific coast. Hurricane Irma temporarily closed mills in the forests of Florida and Georgia. And then came a shortage of railcars and trucks to transport timber from forests in places like the Pacific Northwest. Rates for flatbed trucks rose 24% in January from a year earlier, according to DAT Solutions LLC.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Who wood have expected this?
Build houses made of Spotted Owls.
Takes a lot of glue, though.
I’m sure some is due to shortage therefore demand is outstripping Supply however however and however I am sure if we follow the money there are some democrat and liberal Republican Senators and Congress Critters benefiting from whatever regulations exist and having their palms greased I would look there first before I called it just a lumber shortage.
My home is steel-framed. Termites are not a concern!
(Cell service is a little sub-par, though)
“People are screaming for their wood,” said Russell Taylor.
OK.
Could I ask why? Was that a financial decision or do you consider steel superior?
With the right mix of mesh in the walls you can block cell phone transmission ... as well as help prevent electronic snooping.
There is no lumber shortage....just a restricted access to that lumber. Sec. Zinke could alleviate this tomorrow.
“””We are in a lumber supply crisis”””
Or is it a ‘lumber DEMAND crisis?
How many homes do we need to build in the USA to house the millions of illegals who are building those houses?
As more builders are forced to buy American it will bring the prices down.
Ban wood peckers.
Plenty of railcars to haul that lumber. I know where there are hundreds of those cars just rusting away on sidings here in Oregon. From what I’ve seen, that recession decimated the lumber industry here in the PNW.
Why would anyone build a house of wood when you have ICF?
Tariffs
Can you do photos on FR?
Get a photo of Davy Hogg screaming “I want my wood!”
I haven’t notice and price change at my local lumber retail stores.
The mental midgets we lovingly call Free Traitors are some of the stupidest people on earth.
Neither have I. But I am next door to East Texas.
Don’t forget the environazi’s demanding ever more space for “threatened” animal species.
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