The number of single-family homes built-for-rent in the US increased over the course of 2018, as construction starts of this type of housing totaled 43,000 homes, compared to 37,000 for 2017. There were 10,000 single-family built-for-rent starts for 4Q 2018. According to data from the Census Bureau’s Quarterly Starts and Completions by Purpose and Design and NAHB analysis, the market share of single-family homes built-for-rent, as measured on a one-year moving average, stood at 4.9% of single-family starts as of…

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The latest issue of the Western Wood Products Association’s monthly Lumber Track, for full-year 2018, shows a +3.3% increase in US softwood lumber production volume, while that in Canada dropped by a similar ratio.US softwood lumber production in 2018 ended strong compared to the previous year, jumping by +3.3%, totalling 34,873 million board feet (MMBF) compared to 33,775 MMBF in 2017. Canadian sawmills, meanwhile, produced 27,436 million board feet (MMBF) of softwood lumber last year, -3.2% lower than the 28,334…

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Video showing the data and functionality of the *new* Madison’s Lumber Price Reporter online dashboard tool: North America construction framing softwood lumber: 387 of the highest-volume, most commonly-traded, wood building materials wholesaler prices (net FOB sawmill) updated every Friday morning since 1952. Madison’s Lumber Price Reporter online dashboard tool: Quickstart User Guide: Madison’s Lumber Reporter is a weekly lumber industry price guide detailing current US and Canadian softwood lumber and panel prices: All prices are available on a single screen….

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The dreaded, seemingly never-ending, Canada / US softwood lumber dispute has again reared it’s ugly head in the form of an “administrative review” request to the US Commerce Department. This could be considered a regular bureaucratic function of any trade dispute. It could also, unfortunately, be used as a information-sucking mechanism; handled a certain way the data request contained within the “Certain Lumber Products From Canada: Request for Administrative Review” can cast a net so wide as to encompass operators…

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Important data releases delayed by the US government furlough are starting to catch up to normal schedule. Because everything is related between agencies, there have been delays in Statistics Canada releases, since StatsCan works closely with US Census on North America data. This week Monday came out Canadian sawmill manufacturing sales and Canadian softwood lumber production for full-year 2018, as well as US housing starts for January. When this data is put against North America lumber prices there is apparent…

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Canadian softwood lumber production in December 2018 fell -18.4% from November, to 4,319.2 thousand cubic metres in December, said Statistics Canada Monday. Production was -10.8% lower than in December 2017. Canadian sawmills shipped 4,294.1 thousand cubic metres of lumber in December, down -18.2% from November and -10% lower than in December 2017.

Values of British Columbia forest products exports for full-year 2018 increased by +5.2% compared to the previous year, detailed the Economic Services Branch of the BC Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development Friday. As well, Monday morning the CBC had a visit to the construction site of the new San Group sawmill in Port Alberni, on Vancouver Island just off the coast of British Columbia. At a sawmill indefinitely curtailing by Western Forest Products in 2017,…

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After a sleepy end to last year, the manufacture, sale, and consumption of North American dimension softwood lumber in 2019 to date has bobbled to relative normalcy. The weekly lumber price newsletter Madison’s Lumber Reporter printed today on the wholesaler (producer or secondary supplier) price of benchmark softwood lumber commodity Western Spruce-Pine-Fir KD 2×4 #2&Btr at US$402 mfbm. Prices of this construction framing commodity lasted several weeks at $422. This week that price is down -4.7% compared to last week…

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Of particular interest to building materials suppliers, especially those dealing in wood products, is the latest data on the strength of the US real estate market for full-year 2018. Home buying-and-selling activity, with details like inventory and prices, are good indicators of looming construction projects. Canadian and US softwood lumber manufacturers, the sawmills, as well as wholesalers and secondary suppliers, carefully watch this data to gain an understanding of the demand that will be coming from their customers, the construction…

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More data delayed by the US government furlough at the end of last year is trickling in; this week US home sales and house price for December and full-year 2018. Despite a period of weakness during autumn 2018, new home sales in the US ended 2018 up +1.5% compared to the total for 2017. Contracts for new, single-family home sales increased almost +4% to 621,000. (background here: https://madisonsreport.com/2019/02/28/us-residential-vacancies-and-homeownership-report-q4-2018/). For the year 2018 new single-family home sales summed to 622,000, compared…

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