{"id":505271,"date":"2021-05-13T18:06:16","date_gmt":"2021-05-13T22:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=505271"},"modified":"2021-05-13T18:06:18","modified_gmt":"2021-05-13T22:06:18","slug":"four-reasons-lumber-prices-are-skyrocketing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/four-reasons-lumber-prices-are-skyrocketing\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Reasons Lumber Prices Are \u2018Skyrocketing\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">12<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffour-reasons-lumber-prices-are-skyrocketing%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=505271&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-461907976-1200x800-1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p><span>In recent months, lumber prices have surged by an unbelievable 308% since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to a record high of $1,459 per thousand board feet.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>As <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/2021\/05\/12\/lumber-prices-cost-shortage-covid-housing-market-construction-costs-mortgage-rates\/#:~:text=That%2050%25%20decline%20in%20inventory,lumber%2C%20thus%20exacerbating%20the%20shortage.\"><span>Fortune<\/span><\/a><span> noted, the \u201c<\/span><span>scarcity of a formerly plentiful and cheap commodity\u201d has further constrained the much-needed construction of new homes as \u201cHomebuyers across the nation are up against one of the tightest housing markets in modern history.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>But why is there a lumber shortage in the first place? Here is a brief overview of some of the compounding factors.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Sawmill capacity struggling to catch up<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span>In a similar fashion to other industries, sawmills saw widespread layoffs as they worked to massively scale down production in the early months of the pandemic. According to Fortune, U.S. wood production was down 16% by April 2020, compared to January 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>While wood production recovered to above pre-pandemic levels by the summer, it was still \u201cfar behind the boom on the demand side.\u201d With the limited capacity of existing sawmills, the ability to keep up with demand has fueled the surge in lumber prices.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Canadian softwood, beetles, and climate change<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span>Fortune also added that softwood lumber from Canada is \u201ca favorite among U.S. homebuilders,\u201d and is \u201cparticularly constrained\u201d for a wide variety of reasons.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>CEO of Deacon Lumber, Stinson Dean, said that \u201cCanadian softwood production is limited by factors including British Columbia forest fires, beetle infestations, and the slow growth rate of spruce trees,\u201d according to Fortune.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cIf the production factors remain that are limiting log supply, I find it hard to believe we return to historical price ranges,\u201d Dean said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/qz.com\/1985276\/america-is-running-short-of-wood\/\">Quartz<\/a>, part of the reason behind the shortage of lumber from Canada is the changing climate and its impact on a beetle species which infests forests in British Columbia.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Dendroctonus ponderosae<\/span><span> is a mountain pine beetle, \u201ca quarter-inch insect with a shiny black exoskeleton,\u201d which is usually kept \u201cin check by cold winters.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cBut in the late 1990s, the beetles started to live longer and reproduce quicker \u2014 an outcome, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/nature06777\"><span>scientists<\/span><\/a> <span>believe<\/span><span>, of a warming climate. They swarmed through the pines of British Columbia, attacking more than 44 million acres of forest, an area four times the size of Switzerland,\u201d noted Quartz.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Americans turned to DIY during lockdown<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span>According to Fortune, the \u201cdo-it-yourself\u201d market surged during the pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cEssentially from the start of the COVID crisis, do-it-yourself projects boomed. Americans were spending a lot more time at home and finally got around to knocking out projects,\u201d reported Fortune. \u201cDuring the first two months of the recession, home-improvement sales shot up 13%.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>This rapid rise in demand had an impact on the price, with home-improvement spending still high, up 29% in March 2021 compared to pre-pandemic levels.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Record-low mortgage rates<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span>During the pandemic, mortgage rates fell to record lows, with Fortune reporting that \u201cfixed 30-year rates [bottomed] out at 2.65% in December.\u201d Fortune also noted that this was partnered with a \u201c<\/span><span>five-year period when people born between 1989 and 1993, the biggest birth years for millennials, will turn 30 \u2014 entering the all-important first-time homebuying years.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>While housing inventory usually increases during a recession, these factors combined to cause a rapid decrease in the availability of homes. This only drove the demand for new housing, which requires lumber.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>According to the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nahb.org\/news-and-economics\/industry-news\/press-releases\/2021\/04\/skyrocketing-lumber-prices-add-nearly-36000-to-new-home-prices\"><span>National Association of Home Builders<\/span><\/a><span>, \u201c<\/span><span>Soaring lumber prices that have tripled over the past 12 months have caused the price of an average new single-family home to increase by $35,872.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span>Ian Haworth is an Editor and Writer for The Daily Wire. Follow him on Twitter at <\/span><\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ighaworth\"><i><span>@ighaworth<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span>The views expressed in this piece are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><i><span>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a<\/span><\/i> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><i><span>member<\/span><\/i><\/a><i><span>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In recent months, lumber prices have surged by an unbelievable 308% since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to a record high of $1,459 per thousand board feet.As Fortune noted, &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2278109,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-461907976-1200x800-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Four Reasons Lumber Prices Are \u2018Skyrocketing\u2019","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-505271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/GettyImages-461907976-1200x800-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"Four Reasons Lumber Prices Are \u2018Skyrocketing\u2019","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2278109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}