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US Housing Starts Feb & Softwood Lumber Prices March: 2021
Most of North America remained in the grip of truly harsh winter weather last month, so it’s no surprise that February housing starts in the US continued drops seen in January. Compared to February 2020 total residential starts in the US last month fell by -9.3% to a 1.42 million annualized rate, from 1.57 in…
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US New and Existing Home Sales: June 2020
A huge bounce for both New and Existing home sales in the US in June 2020 provided some well-needed positive movement for the US economic condition: Sales of new single-family homes in the United States rose by +14% from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 776 thousand in June 2020 The…
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North America Rail Traffic: to July 18, 2020
For the week ending July 18, 2020, total U.S. weekly rail traffic was 481,597 carloads and intermodal units, down -8.5% compared with the same week last year said the the Association of American Railroads (AAR) Wednesday. Total carloads for the week ending July 18 were 214,685 carloads, down -16% compared with the same week in…
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US Housing Starts & Softwood Lumber Prices: June and July 2020
US Housing Total Starts June 2020 & Benchmark Softwood Lumber Prices July 2020 The USA purchases approximately 65% of Canada’s dimension lumber production mostly for home construction framing, while Canadian buyers account for about 10%, and those in Japan take 6%. For the week ending July 17, 2020, prices of standard construction framing dimension softwood…
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Prices of Softwood Lumber Continue to Rise as Demand Flows East
“It was a runaway market again last week as softwood lumber prices soared thanks to persistently limited supply.” — Madison’s Lumber Reporter For the week ending July 17, 2020, prices of standard construction framing dimension softwood lumber items increased yet further. Benchmark softwood lumber item Western S-P-F 2×4 #2&Btr KD popped higher still, up by…
