*** my husband runs a lumberyard near downtown Houston..it is crazy the shortages and pricing increases ***
Try inking a contract for a commercial building back in mid 2020. The price of the beams was $750,000. Now as lockdowns are lifted, the price has jumped since then to near 3 million. Market predictions were steel prices would drop 1st quarter of 2021. They instead, rose, and inventory is short.
Your husband is seeing the effects of this firsthand. Many are not.
Yes he is and in fact told me a tale of a building that was bid on with estimates and they delayed to wait out COVID then even after eliminating a second story and sq footage found the pricing to be some 30% more with less....
He fields many calls and searches for material all day.....