-
US Real Estate Owned (Foreclosure) Inventory: 4Q 2017
Freddie Mac reported Thursday the number of Real Estate Owned (or foreclosure) housing inventory in the US declined to 8,299 units at the end of 4Q 2017, compared to 11,418 at the end of 4Q 2016. For Freddie, this is down -89 per cent from the 74,897 peak number of REOs in 3Q 2010, and…
-
New Housing Price Index, Canada: December 2017
Nationally, prices for new houses in Canada were unchanged in December, while showing limited growth in some markets, according to Statistics Canada February 8. In December, new house prices in Canada were unchanged for the first time since April 2015. Buyers in 15 of the 27 census metropolitan areas surveyed saw no price change. Increases…
-
Japan Housing Starts: December 2017
According to a report released by Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism on January 31st, Japan’s housing starts in December 2017 were 76,751 units (down -2.1 per cent from the same month in the previous year), falling below the previous year’s results for six consecutive months, according to the Japan Lumber Journal Thursday.…
-
Canada Sawmills: November 2017
Lumber production at Canadian sawmills fell -1 per cent from October, with sawmills producing 5,929 thousand cubic metres of lumber in November, said Statistics Canada February 8. Production was -1.5 per cent lower than in November 2016. Sawmills shipped 5,656 thousand cubic metres of lumber in November, down -3.9 per cent from October and -4.8…
-
Softwood Lumber Prices Are Elevated and Might Just Correct Downward
Transportation problems continued to plague softwood lumber suppliers and customers, providing opportunity for producers to keep prices up as they could legitimately not say when wood ordered two weeks ago would get delivered. In this new reality of the forest industry, it is becoming apparent that demand for uses beyond only US home building is…
