Lumber prices skyrocketed during the first two years of the pandemic. It was a classic case of supply and demand. People who were forced to stay home wanted to remodel, and the industry simply couldn’t keep up.
Some people decided to wait, hoping prices would come down. And they did.
With new home construction slowing, demand for lumber is down.
“Prices have been coming down for quite a while,” said Mike Dunn, CEO of Dunn Lumber. “It’s now down below 2020 levels, 2021 levels, and it’s almost down to 2019.”
One example: The price of oriented-strand board, used for sheeting on roofs and walls, went from about $10 per sheet in 2020 to a high of $80 or $90 per sheet. Now, it’s back down to around $10.
So, if you’re planning a project that requires lumber, would it pay to wait a little longer?
“I don’t think that it would be substantial enough to cause someone to wait,” Dunn told me. “It could drop lower, but it can also go up now. It’s fairly low, and I wouldn’t expect it to go significantly lower.”
A spike in demand or disruption of the supply chain could drive prices back up again, Dunn said.
A look at the futures market shows that prices should stay fairly constant for the next month or so, down 60% from January’s high point.
