Posted on 04/14/2021 9:33:00 AM PDT by blam
With median prices for both existing and new homes at all time highs, and soaring at a record annualized rate of almost 20%...
... increasingly more Americans find themselves priced out of homeownership, while still cautious banks refuse to lend them the mortgages they so desperately need to live the American Dream (on credit).
And unfortunately, since most US houses are made out of wood, we have even more bad news: home prices are about to get even more expensive if for no other reason than the frenzy sweeping the lumber market is set to keep going through the summer peak of US home building as labor shortages and depleted inventories mean that supplies can’t keep up with skyrocketing demand.
As Bloomberg summarizes what we have observed across the past few months of torrid, sometimes panicked, ISM Survey Responses such as this one...
“Things are now out of control. Everything is a mess, and we are seeing wide-scale shortages.”
... there is an unprecedented shortage and tightness across the entire timber supply chain. Sawmills have had trouble ramping up fast enough to meet the surge in demand. Meanwhile, trucking delays and worker shortages at lumber yards have added to costs, which are now getting passed on to consumers. Worst of all, the bigger cost component of any new house l Lumber prices - have surged more than 60% to record highs this year, and analysts aren’t expecting any relief until late 2021, if not later.
That, according to Bloomberg, will keep pouring fuel on red-hot home prices, making ownership less affordable for large swathes of the population (one would almost think it was the Fed's plan to destroy the middle class). Soaring wood costs have already added more than $24,000 to the price
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at bizpatriot.com ...
Don’t most people buy a fixer-upper as a first home?
I saw OSB go from $8 a year ago to $39 now. Fortunately I don’t have to buy any wood. I’ll wait ‘till it comes down, even if it takes years.
ouch, building when costs are temporairly high doesn’t necessarily mean the house is worth more...
my husband just built three garden beds from free pallets....now, pallets seem to be hot commodity....Harbor Freight posted free pallets...maybe 50 or so...come and get em.....when we got there....all gone....
Seems this is just the beginning thanks to the progressives. Biden and Harris are taking us down.
Last week I bought two 3/4 inch 4x8 pieces of pressure treated plywood,$136.00 for both.
It’s not just the lumber/home market. Copper is up dramatically, oil has risen, raw plastics are in short supply, chip market is seeing drastically longer lead times.
Some of this has to do with last years layoffs and slow rehiring.
Some is due to people still getting govt monies and not rejoining the labor force.
Some is inflationary pressures from continuing to print.
Some is pure high demand. And I’m sure some is govts playing games with each other.
But - it’s across the board. My company has been attempting to hire folks for 4-5 months and hasn’t been able to make headway for the most part. We were lucky to place a large number of purchases immediately when COVID hit so we were front of the line for parts, but we’ve gotten past that and are now back with the herd with significantly longer lead times on everything.
The houses in Florida are mostly block now...the sky high prices are the democrats fleeing where ever they live....I have been seeing a lot of cars from California...
I have 25 acres of hardwood trees. This may be a good time to get it logged.
I need to finish the interior of my new shop building, but fortunately it won’t take much wood and I’ve already purchased a lot of it. I also already bought the wood for our raised gardens last year, so this won’t be very painful for me personally. Thank God, who has been looking out for us for a very long time.
Even fixer-uppers are outrageously priced now. People think, probably correctly, that these low mortgage interest rates aren't going to be around long now that Traitor Joe, the Ho and their cabal of incompetents are in charge.
Maybe they can build houses with Spotted Owls.
Here's a tip: PAY MORE.
Why the high demand when millions are out of work and thousands of businesses closed? I would think there would be a housing glut - a buyer’s market.
“Don’t most people buy a fixer-upper as a first home?”
Many younger people don’t like physical labor and want it now.
Lumber packages for a SFR that were in the $35K to $50K range are over $100,000.
So, printing money leads to inflation?
To the blogger who wrote this: If you can’t afford a a house/mortgage, don’t buy a house. Banks don’t “owe” you anything and you don’t have a “right” to homeownership. There is no shame in renting or living with family to save money to buy a place when the bubble pops.
>>Maybe they can build houses with Spotted Owls.
LOL!
Whaddya think? Wood just grows on trees?
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