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Most Softwood Lumber Prices Drop as Demand Remains Elusive
Couched between the Canadian long weekend for Victoria Day and this Monday’s Memorial Day in the US, the entirety of the North American sawmilling and lumber sales industries were last week at a total loss for why demand for solid wood construction framing dimension softwood lumber products was so low. Wholesaler prices (net FOB sawmill)…
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US Housing Market: May 2019
Softwood Lumber Prices vs US House Price Index: 2019 In the US, a nationwide housing shortage has eased somewhat, said USA Today May 22. Home price gains have moderated. And bidding wars are no longer commonplace. Thirty-eight percent of US home buyers topped their spending limits, up from 32% a year ago, according to the March survey Owners.com,…
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US New Home Sales: April 2019
Contracts for new, single-family home sales declined to a 673,000 seasonally adjusted annual rate according to estimates from the joint release of HUD and the US Census Bureau. However, this decline was off a strong 723,000 sale pace in March, making that month’s sales rate the best since the Great Recession. Furthermore, the April rate was the…
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US Existing Home Sales: April 2019
Total US existing home sales, including single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, declined -0.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.19 million in April, said the US National Association of Realtors (NAR) Tuesday. On a year-over-year basis, sales were -4.4% lower than a year ago. Sales have declined on an annualized basis for more…
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US Built-for-Rent and Townhouse Construction: 1Q 2019
The number of single-family homes built-for-rent declined at the start of 2019. This is a very small segment of total US new home building but is the type of construction which uses the most wood, so is an excellent indicator of recent softwood lumber demand. According to data from the US Census Bureau’s Quarterly Starts…
