Page 8 - Green Builder Magazine May-June 2021

GREEN BUILDING NEWS
The latest on sustainability and renewable energy.

COVID-19 Rockets Lumber Cost

to Record High

Supply and demand, driven by a

pandemic lifestyle, have sent prices up
almost 100 percent from early 2020.

Lumber prices are at an all-time high and expected to go even
higher. According to a report by Fortune, the price of lumber per
thousand board feet hit $1,048 in May, up 93 percent from $543
the previous year. A similar report by Trading Economics placed
the board-foot price at $1,700 in early May, a 280 percent increase
from 2020. The culprit? Pandemic-driven supply and demand.
The Fortune report calls the pandemic “a perfect storm for
surging lumber prices.” While sawmills limited production
during the early months of the crisis, there was a do-it-yourself
boom among Americans stuck at home. Add in record low interest Building block. Despite record output thus far in 2021, lumber
rates and a historically tight existing homes inventory, and you manufacturers can’t keep lumber yards full to meet the public demand
get a baffling equation: a backlog so big that prices aren’t falling, ignited in 2020 by the pandemic. CREDIT: REGION 3 PHOTOGRAPHY/FLICKR
even though wood production has also reached a 13-year high.
According to Dustin Jalbert, senior economist at Fastmarkets difficult for mills to ramp production up fast enough to rebalance
RISI, demand won’t drop any time soon. “Builders have plenty the market.” Any price correction—whenever it comes—will
of ongoing projects to keep working through, which is keeping result from lumber cost overwhelming builders at the same time
lumber and panel demand high,” he says. “It will make it very that home interest rates rise and home buying slows down.

Last resort? Almost 90 percent of new buyers say they would
consider a tiny home. CREDIT: HILDA WEGES/ISTOCK Seller’s Market
Pushes Buyers Toward

Tiny House Living

A new surveyshows that low inventory and
high housing prices are pushing more buyers

to consider a home with a micro footprint.

Tiny homes are becoming the right size for first-time home of $30,000 to $60,000, compared to 53 percent of persons who
buyers’ pocketbooks. A survey by financial exchange services say they can afford the typical starter home’s price of $233,400.
company IPX1031 reveals that 86 percent of buyers would In addition to affordability, respondents cited efficiency, eco-
consider a miniature dwelling—in this case, 400 square feet or friendliness, minimalist lifestyle, and the ability to downsize
smaller—for a first home, as would 56 percent of all home buyers. as appealing home ownership factors. The Northeast remains
Seventy-two percent of home buyers say they would purchase a the hot bed for tiny home sales, with Vermont, New Hampshire
tiny home as an investment property. and Maine as the nation’s top three states in which to find
The survey of 2,000 Americans, not surprisingly, found that such residences.
tiny home prices are what buyers find appealing. Seventy-nine
percent of respondents can afford a tiny home’s median price IPX1031’s survey can be found at its Insight site.

6 GREEN BUILDER May/June 2021 www.greenbuildermedia.com