Lumber prices have more than tripled over the year amidst a pandemic-driven surge in new home construction and renovation.
LSU Forestry Economist Joseph Chang said new home construction is up about 30 percent from last year and there are more remodeling projects in the works as well.
“The improvements and remodeling started happening shortly after the pandemic,” said Chang “When people started working from home they started realizing they really wanted to have some extra space.”
Last year lumber prices were clocked at around 354 dollars per thousand feet of lumber. As of May 18th that number is up to 1,264 dollars, down from the year’s high of 1,686 earlier this month.
Chang said folks hoping to build or buy new homes are really feeling that lumber price increase as the cost of wood typically makes up about ten percent of the value of a new home. Despite the increase in lumber prices timber prices for landowners in Louisiana’s expansive forestry industry haven’t changed much due to a major decline in the number of sawmills over the last 15 years.
Chang said his sense is that the price is eventually going to decline, but the question is when.
“My concern right now is that inflation pressure seems to be building and it will probably not be very soon before the prices start to fall,” said Chang.
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