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 the same month one year ago.
As in January, permits for future homebuilding again rose sharply compared to one year ago, this time by +17% to a rate of 1.68 million units last month compared to February 2020 when it was 1.44 million.
Compared to the price one-year-ago, of US$356 mfbm, for the week ending March 26 benchmark softwood lumber item Western S-P-F KD 2×4 #2&Btr was again selling for US$1,040 mfbm which is +684, or +192% more.