Lumber Prices Are Down But There Are Other Issues Afoot

Lumber prices have been dropping, and that’s good. But the trend is likely to come to a halt and even less expensive wood for framing isn’t close to the major cost of building.

“There’s more lumber available than the demand right now,” Mike Wisnefski, co-founder and CEO of digital wood product marketplace MaterialsXchange, tells GlobeSt.com. “We got caught in a cycle where prices were going up and hit a spot where people who had projects had to buy lumber out as far as they could. On May 10, the buyers bought far enough out, and they weren’t going to buy any more and the prices came tumbling down. Now the onus is on the supply side to right-size itself.”