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 estate market. Sales of existing homes in the US declined to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.94 million last month, a decline from 5.273…

Read More Read More

Please find below the results of Madison’s Lumber Reporter‘s investigation into questions regarding a possible difference between North American softwood lumber prices into USA and those domestically within Canada, in view of the latest US softwood lumber duty. OVERVIEW OF CURRENT NORTH AMERICAN LUMBER MARKET: 1Q 2019 The question at hand: · is there apparently a price difference between Canadian sales to domestic markets and sales to US export markets. THE SHORT UPDATE to the basic question is: unchanged from…

Read More Read More

Seemingly non-stop ordering boosted Canadian and US construction framing softwood lumber prices last week as manufacturers kept production levels high to stay on pace with demand. Order files at sawmills grew to three weeks or more, thus the most popular items were “off-the-market” because producers refused to quote prices more than three weeks out. Of the most popular items, 2×6 sales once again were super-hot, indicating that future data for February 2-to-4 unit construction projects will show increases. Wholesaler prices…

Read More Read More

House-for-sale inventory in the US increased in 4Q 2018, and metro market prices rose at a slower pace, according to the latest quarterly report by the National Association of Realtors® (NAR), released Tuesday. The national median existing single-family home price in the quarter was US$257,600, up +4% from 4Q 2017 when it was US$247,800. Single-family home prices increased in 92 percent of measured markets last quarter, with 163 out of 178 metropolitan statistical areas showing sales price gains in 4Q…

Read More Read More

The spectacular rebound of North American construction framing dimension softwood lumber prices in the first week of February continued last week as prices rose yet further in response to transportation problems, mostly on the Canadian railways. Severe weather hit many parts of Canada and the US, causing delays of shipments from softwood lumber suppliers. Customers, already low on inventory as they had been waiting for prices to come down, were forced to buy specific items for immediate fill-in needs. Sawmills…

Read More Read More

Lumber prices have made quite a comeback this year, climbing by +25% in January and nearly erasing the decline suffered in 2018, as the market gets a boost in demand ahead of the spring building season, said Barron’s Friday. Looking ahead, however, analysts urge caution. The lumber market looks overbought and shares some similarities with last year, when prices rose to an all-time high and then dropped. Lumber was in short supply early that year, in part due to US…

Read More Read More

Conifex Timber, out of Vancouver, BC, announced February 4 that it is temporarily curtailing sawmill operations at its Fort St. James, British Columbia, sawmill for three weeks, said the Vanderhoof Omineca Express. Volatile lumber prices have forced Fort St. James sawmill to curtail its operations. A total of 150 production employees have been impacted by the curtailment, with 70 of them part of the six month temporary reduction that was announced at the end of November. In December, Conifex announced…

Read More Read More

The housing market represents about 15 percent to 18 percent of US GDP, said Lindsey Bell, Investment Strategist at CFRA, citing figures from the National Association of Home Builders.

Madison’s Lumber Reporter has partnered with Canadian Forest Industries magazine. Our weekly North America lumber and panel price update will be featured on their website every Tuesday:https://www.woodbusiness.ca/softwood-lumber-prices-rebound-as-construction-material-buying-season-gets-going/

Immediately at the beginning of January, wholesaler prices of benchmark lumber commodity Western Spruce-Pine-Fir KD 2×4 #2&Btr started rising off full-year 2018 lows, finishing last week at US$404 mfbm, a $58 or +14.4% increase from $346 the week before. At close Monday, lumber futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange were US$423, a historically-appropriate $25 premium to cash prices.