The lumber supply-demand balance seemed to find an even keel in the second week of 2021, ending January 15, 2021, with benchmark softwood lumber commodity item Western S-P-F KD 2×4 #2&Btr prices staying flat at US$944 mfbm over the previous week. Last week’s price is +$292, or +45%, more than it was one month ago when it was $652.
US home construction starts rose in December 2020 to the best pace since late 2006 as builders responded to the robust demand for single-family housing. New residential housing starts climbed by +5.8% to a 1.67 million annualized rate, from 1.58 in November. Full-year 2020 saw a total of 1.38 million starts.
Single-family homebuilding, the largest share of the housing market, soared +12 to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.338 million units. Single-family starts have increased for eight straight months. One-unit construction for full-year 2020 climbed to 991,200.