U.S. New Home Sales for September 2020 surge +32% year-on-year; September Existing Home Sales climb to a 14-Year high, up more than +9% compared to August, the fourth straight monthly increase
Benchmark Softwood Lumber Prices Oct 2020 & US NEW Home Sales Sept 2020
While New Home Sales are the best indicator of recent lumber use, Sales of Existing Homes are a much larger segment of the real estate market and are a forward indicator of demand for newly-built homes. Please see details of last months’ data release here: https://madisonsreport.com/2020/09/24/us-new-home-sales-aug-and-construction-framing-softwood-lumber-prices-sept-2020/
U.S. sales of new single-family houses in September 2020 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 959,000, according to estimates released jointly Monday by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is +3.5% below the revised August rate of 994,000, but is +32% above the September 2019 estimate of 726,000.
The number of homes sold but not yet started was up in September from the previous month, a sign that builders are struggling to keep pace with the demand for homes.
The median sales price of new houses sold in September 2020 was US$326,800. The average sales price was US$405,400.
There were 284,000 new houses for sale at the end of September, which represents a supply of 3.6 months at the current sales rate.
“Home prices in the U.S. are simply rising too fast due to insufficient supply and very strong demand.”
Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors.
Benchmark Softwood Lumber Prices: October 2020
After holding flat for four weeks in a falling market, for the week ending October 23, 2020 the price of benchmark softwood lumber commodity item Western S-P-F KD 2×4 #2&Btr dropped sharply, by -$260, or -27%, to US$700 mfbm from a stable US$960 for the past four weeks, said Madison’s Lumber Reporter.
Compared to one year ago, this price is up +$322, or +85%.
Softwood Lumber Prices as Indicator of US Home Building: Oct 2020
Compared to one-year-ago, last week’s Western S-P-F KD 2×4 #2&Btr price was +$179, or +34%, compared to the 1-year rolling average price of US$521 mfbm and was up +$258, or +58%, compared to the 2-year rolling average price of US$442 mfbm.
Historical Softwood Lumber Prices: Current vs Highs & Lows
STAY AHEAD of US housing price data by getting access to softwood lumber prices. Released every Friday for that week, since 1952 Madison’s Lumber Prices is used by the forest products industry as a price guide for North American construction framing dimension softwood lumber. These are, of course, the inputs into US and Canadian home building materials.
Shrewd investors know that construction framing softwood lumber prices are a good leading indicator for US housing activity, including home building and home sales. DON’T MISS OUT, get lumber price data updates directly to your desktop every Friday morning: https://madisonsreport.com/subscribe/