Softwood Lumber Prices Continue to Create Price Growth Building Material Prices Stacking Up by Rebecca Radtke, LCMP  According to Trading Economics, lumber prices inched closer to $630 per thousand board feet after hitting a two and a half year high of $658 at the beginning of March. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) shows that the inputs to the New Residential Construction Price Index grew 0.7% from February of last year but the index can be broken down into two segments. Goods went up 1.2% over the year but services decreased 0.1%. There are many factors coming into play that have led to the overall uptick in prices, however. The Wall Street Journal shows that lumber prices rose to their highest point since 2022, they believe that it could get more expensive to build if the Canadian tariffs stick. The possible 25% import tax would affect about one-fourth of total U.S. lumber demand on spruce, pine, fir, and southern-yellow pine — which have also seen their highest prices in over a year according to Random Length this comes amid weak demand. Meanwhile, according to the Financial Times, U.S. prices remain up despite the tariff pause as President Trump also ordered a federal investigation into Canadian companies supposedly dumping excess supplies into the U.S. market. The Department of Commerce has also proposed a triple anti-dumping duties on Canadian softwood imports. One cause of the price uptick according to senior economist for wood products at price reporting agency Fastmarkets, Dustin Jalbert — who was quoted in the Financial Times — the spike in lumber prices can also be aggravated by high interest rates and labor shortages. |
