Lumber Prices Fall as Housing Market Weakness Weighs on Demand

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): North American lumber prices enter November under renewed pressure. Madison’s Lumber Prices Index ended last week at $459 per thousand board feet, down 7 percent from the previous week and 8 percent from a month earlier. Buyers remain cautious, with just-in-time purchasing and the normal seasonal slowdown limiting demand.

Housing remains a major headwind. September U.S. housing starts fell 5.2 percent from August and 7.4 percent from a year earlier to 1.221 million annually. Single-family starts fell to 859,000, while single-family permits declined 4 percent for the month.

In the South, third-quarter pine sawtimber averaged just under $24 per ton, up 2 percent from the previous quarter but still 5 percent below last year. Pine chip-n-saw averaged $16.50, down 8 percent from a year earlier.

Pine pulpwood remained the weakest category at just over $5 per ton, marking a seventh consecutive quarterly decline. Prices vary sharply by local wood basket, with pine sawtimber ranging from roughly $16-$19 per ton in parts of Tennessee and Virginia to more than $30 in Florida and western North Carolina.

In the Pacific Northwest, recent Oregon state timber-sale results show continued demand for Douglas-fir. An October 23 Forest Grove sale drew a winning Douglas-fir bid of about $588 per thousand board feet, although individual timber-sale bids should not be treated as regional averages.

Northeastern hardwood values remain highly species- and location-dependent. Pennsylvania’s latest report showed second-quarter white oak averaging roughly $490 to $698 per thousand board feet across several regions, while northern red oak averaged about $472 to $587.

Courtesy: www.rfdtv.com