These days, lumber and labor are only a small percentage of the cost of constructing a house. All the land associated regulatory costs have risen dramatically since the 1990’s, and the cost of copper (wiring and plumbing) have as well. Even roofing materials tripled in the 2000’s when oil prices jumped. That’s not even considering the increased costs of higher quality finish materials generally used today (tile, marble, etc).
I don’t recall seeing horror stories about the cost of building houses when these prices rose.
Housing costs rise all the time, like CarmichaelPatriot says. Lumber is certainly not the driving factor. Land prices, utility hookups, regulation and old-fashioned greed are larger influences.
Despite what some economist and the housing industry would have you believe, for the country as a whole to invest as much time and energy as we do into building subdivisions and acres of McMansions is probably a bad investment. For individuals it is usually a good investment, but for the nation as a whole, we might well benefit from putting our time and energy and capital into industries or items that bring about better return than just space to live in and property with which to speculate.
Right you are. $1 billion in added costs is not as much as one would think.
NEW RESIDENTIAL
CONSTRUCTION
MARCH 2017
Building Permits: 1,260,000
Housing Starts: 1,215,000
Housing Completions: 1,205,000.
Who needs tile and marble. Give me laminate and vinyl any day. I don’t have the time nor inclination to scrub grout lines.
It’s a shame how stone counter tops have destroyed the land. All the mining. I watched a monolith of granite cut down to nothing in the past few years. Such a damned shame that I drive another road just to not see it. That’s just one mountain of stone gone so I know there are thousands of others that have been leveled.
As far as the effects of restricting importation of softwood lumber from Canada, there is a CONSIDERABLE amount of US timber that is not now being allowed to be harvested, locked up in “preserves” that most likely shall result in huge forest fires that would burn all the more furiously because of the older growth becoming a vast reservoir of fuel.
Cutting, processing and shipping the timber and the resulting lumber entirely within the US would help to contain the jobs within our borders, and Canada has plenty of customers for their exports of various grades of timber and lumber.
It is not that Canadians may produce the lumber so much more cheaply than American labor and capital could, it is that American labor and capital are not ALLOWED to produce up to a sustainable level.
Enviro-weenie greenies have run amok.