Ok chuckle head DEM on the news yesterday said the reason lumber was so high was the tariffs the Trump adm placed on lumber imports ! Ok they went into effect in 2018 but lumber didn't star rising until sept of 2020. then really went up after Biden (bobo) took office. One problem is people are making so much money on the imagined wealth of the stock market. BUT the main reason it is high is people are paying it!!! Let the builders stop purchasing lumber at the inflated prices and watch what happens. SOMEONE IS making a fortune.

Its the 4 biggest lumber milling companies in the country that have profits right now going through the roof

OK, OK!!

Here is a link for July lumber . Lumber is a thin market and I don't keep up with who is in control of the long or short positions, but the closer they get to delivery their hands will be played out.

https://www.barchart.com/futures/quotes/LSN21/technical-chart

The pandemic forced a short term shut down of the milling industry and for 3-4 months lumber usage fell dramatically, so even more mills idled or lowered output. About late summer o f 2020 with many workers at home and not at work, people started buying to do projects, from small to major. With interest rates at even lower rates during the pandemic and monies available demand for lumber soared and the milling industry did not have the supply so thus prices rose 200-350%, which is slowing demand and usage. There is also uncertainty as the softwood agreement has not yet been signed so some with enough funds have been hoarding wood so to speak. It is estimated that by 2022 that lumber will be back down to pre pandemic levels, but with continued very low interest rates and a fairly significant housing shortage that may not happen. High housing costs and middle class household incomes will make for a cycle of smaller and more space efficient homes for the continued decline in family size. A friend of mine built a very nice 2500 square foot home in 2005 and it cost about 315K without the lot. He was way, way in the rears after 2008 and was still at a loss up until recently. He has taken this opportunity to sell and work and bought a condo. He was really worried that he may never have been able to crawl out of that property but things worked out for him.

Bryce

There is a sad day coming for TONS of home buyers and new home owners. 2008 all over again. People living off of make believe stock market monies. IT WILL FALL Dems would screw up a steel anvil with a rubber hammer.

We all thought the sky was falling, and the building industry would die. Mills slowed down, logging did also. Everyone was wrong. People got paid not to work and we couldn't recover. Blame Covid.

We all thought the sky was falling, and the building industry would die. Mills slowed down, logging did also. Everyone was wrong. People got paid not to work and we couldn't recover. Blame Covid.

there was one side of the aisle locking things down LOOOOOONG after the two week "flatten the curve" bs..

This.

Maybe in your neck of the woods, around here logging never slowed a bit for the Corona, and the mills have been working extra hours since last spring. With people in office jobs getting to work at home or actually being paid not to work, they were all doing home projects and put off honey-dos. Demand for building supplies was way up this time last year, and mills working overtime to keep up with demand. Prices didn't start skyrocketing until a couple months ago, though.

Same here , logging has been wide open.

I found out why lumber is so high.
The demand for trees is so high cause Creepy Uncle Joe is printing so much money the are running out of paper, gotta cut more trees!

COVID shut down Canada where 40% of wood products come from.
Mills couldn't find anyone to work because they could make more sitting on the couch with the extra unemployment being payed.
Ice storm in Texas shut down the plant which produces the vast majority of the glue for plywood. It was shut down for quite a while.
The final nail in the coffin is the housing boom which has been going on.
A perfect storm.

Most of The logging I do does not go to building lumber . I cut mostly white oak that goes to make whiskey and wine barrels . That market is extremely good and improved a little but the last three times I have been to the pallet and tie mill they have raised the price on grade red oak each time . I never lost any time to lockdowns . We worked through it all

It's not the trees that are in danger from the government money presses. But if politicians would stop printing all the useless 'look at what I did for you' mailings, we would save some trees for sure.