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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

The supply of homes for sale in the US for February 2019 showed a five consecutive months’ rise, while January signed contracts jumping a wider-than-expected +4.6% month to month, according to the National Association of Realtors. US Housing Inventory: February 2019 The supply of homes for sale is finally rising, but fewer buyers are able…

After a sleepy end to 2018, the manufacture, sale, and consumption of North American dimension softwood lumber in 2019 to date has bobbled to relative normalcy. In the type of data that analysts like Madison’s loves, the wholesaler (producer or secondary supplier) price of benchmark framing softwood lumber commodity Western Spruce-Pine-Fir KD 2×4 #2&Btr last…

The trend of this data provides a good indicator, but it is not as reliable for each data point, said Bill McBride Thursday in his fabulous Calculated Risk. Madison’s regularly features US Price-to-Rent ratio insight from Calculated Risk, as that can be a good forward indicator — if interpreted carefully. The US Residential Vacancies and…

More data out this week, this time for US house prices and sales, helps provide clarity to the housing starts data also just released (details here: https://madisonsreport.com/2019/02/27/us-housing-starts-dec-and-full-year-2018/). US housing prices recorded their slowest growth in four years during 2018, signalling that this year may be a trying time for the real estate industry. However, as…

Widely-anticipated real estate data out of the USA emerged this week. Looking in-depth, Madison’s cautions “beware how you view the data”, as some analysts could be interpreting a much-overestimated pessimistic view of the latest monthly data and that for 4Q 2018 US Housing Starts: December, FY 201 Long-awaited data Tuesday showed the number of US…

Earlier this year, Madison’s was asked to speak at the North American Wholesaler Lumberman’s Association regional meeting in Montreal, QC, held in conjunction with the fabulous Montreal Wood Convention. Unfortunately, due to huge piles of work needing to be done — a happy problem to have — Madison’s is not able to attend that event…

Prices of a few standard construction framing North American softwood lumber commodities did bounce up last week, but overall most of the market stayed flat. New orders were encouraging if not guarded, as end-users did their best to survive on existing inventories rather than ordering beyond immediate needs in fear of prices dropping again. This…

The US housing market keeps slowing down, with January having marked the sixth consecutive month of declining sales. US existing home sales fell -1.2% in January to their worst pace in more than three years, said the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) Thursday, as persistent affordability problems have put a harsh chill in the real…