Speak Up: High lumber prices affect Delaware home construction
Posted
The price of lumber in the United States skyrocketed in early May, when lumber cost as much as $1,700 per thousand board feet. A mixture of issues seems to have driven the higher lumber prices, such as pandemic supply chain constraints, the permanent closure of many mills during the Great Recession and a greatly increased demand for new homes. Additionally, many lumber-supply companies complain they are struggling with getting materials due to a worker shortage, with many truck drivers stepping away from their jobs.
- This is nothing but gouging. There is no shortage going on. OSB is plentiful. No reason for it to be $50 a sheet.. — Jake Phil
- I work in the supply industry, and the lumber prices are a threefold issue. First, Canada has millions of cords of lumber sitting at their border. They’re not releasing them. They’re just sitting there. Second, the mills are not operating at 100% capacity because they cannot get workers back due to unemployment handouts. Lastly and most critically, homebuilders are still buying at these high prices (and in turn, passing them off to homebuyers with escalations clauses). I guarantee that if every homebuilder shut down production for a week or two, lumber prices would crash. Just my humble take on it after watching everything over the last year. — Matthew Fisher
- Mills aren’t operating at capacity because all of the supply chain is turning back on slowly, all the way down to raw-material extraction. These prices are temporary. — Pete Schonert
- Biden’s America. — Rob Holley
- The Biden American-Marxist administration doesn’t want the lumber, as it compounds our failing economy, and this feeds their MO to seize greater power. One of the main reasons they killed the Canadian oil pipeline, which had nothing to do with their green outlook or saving the planet. — Michael Hood
- How is this Marxist? — Pete Schonert
• It’s Marxist because high prices? — Benjamin Black
