As home building and construction activity across North America slows down into winter, and demand for solid wood materials also slows, lumber prices usually start to drop. Sometimes, if there is a boost in building, there might be a late-season pop in lumber prices. That happened this year at the end of October. This is…

After a minor boost in recent weeks, North American construction framing dimension softwood lumber prices once again began their usual annual seasonal drop. Customers, whether retailers or end-users, continued to make purchases for immediate needs only, keeping their inventories quite lean indeed. For their part, sawmills kept production volumes tight to stay in line with…

US homebuilding bounced back in September 2023, after dropping in August to the lowest levels since 2020 as mortgage rates climbed. Despite elevated mortgage rates averaging above 7%, single-family starts posted a gain in September, according to the National Association of Home Builders, which says more buyers are turning to new homes because of a dearth of…

After three years of extreme volatility and many unknowns, North American construction framing dimension softwood lumber price trendlines started to normalize during 2023. This means that next year it will be less difficult to judge what is going with sales and prices, thus industry will be better able to plan. This stability will surely be…

Ongoing demand in various parts of the continent kept lumber sales volumes consistent, even while overall construction activity started to slow down. As winter will come on and home building will slow at the end of the year, there will be good insight to be gleaned from the lumber prices annual trend. Indeed, it may…

After spiking to unsustainable highs during the disruptions to society in the past couple of years, US housing starts trended further downward in August 2023. Permits for authorizations of new home building increased, however. Demand for new construction has been boosted by an ongoing acute shortage of previously owned homes on the market. Realtors estimate…

As true autumn weather came on across the continent, construction activity started to slow down. As such, lumber sales also slowed somewhat. While there were pockets of ongoing building in several regions, elsewhere the usual seasonal slowdown had started. Given the quite stable lumber price levels through this year so far, expectations are for a…

This has historically been a time for lumber prices to start dropping as the season changes to autumn. Generally speaking, construction activity starts to slow down after Labour Day. For the past year of rising interest rates and some unknowns for the housing market, lumber buyers have kept their inventories lean due to uncertainty of…