Current lumber prices explained

[John Grossbohlin]

This is the best overall explanation I?ve come across. It reflects in one place the bits and pieces of the story I?ve seen in the Wall St. Journal and other reliable sources.

[Leon]

Sooo what we are seeing is that workers are not working. Employers are having to pay top dollar to get the workers off of the governments tit. There IS a labor shortage.

Secondly, demand for new housing is probably at an all time high. I have heard several builders say that they cannot get bricks, along with everything else.

More people are working at home now days and need a suitable home, with preferably a dedicated office. Many current homes do not have dedicated office space.

When supply is limited and demand is up prices go up.

[krw]

That's the bottom line. He's saying that the bottleneck is the sawmills and everything else is plentiful. The bottleneck can ask for the big bucks. Kinda obvious. If the bottleneck were the timber growers, they'd be getting the big bucks.

[krw]

The implication above is that the "problem" isn't supply, rather demand. That's the best "problem" to have, if you're going to have one.

[Michael Trew]

That's been quite a theme lately. Fast food restaraunts especially can't get workers... people would rather have unemployment and make more. Arbys is giving out free sandwiches and milkshakes to anyone that comes to open interviews in early May (can't remember the day).

[J. Clarke]

And some spouses have something wrong with him. I remember a court reporter who in the '90s was pulling down over 200K a year working on a tiny little table in the basement of this huge house because that's the only space that her unemployed husband would allow her. I was tempted to tell her "dump the jerk and marry me and I'll build you an office".

[krw]

I guess I'm safe. We have two "offices" (bedrooms) and my wife has been retired for almost ten years. I get the room over the garage. It has a closet so is considered a bedroom. WiFi works, so all is good.

[Clare Snyder]

The problem with lumber goes WAY beyonf supply and demand. Lumber is a "commofity" and is traded on the futures markets - and the speculators / traders are making a KILLING.

[krw]

Without supply or demand (or more precisely, the fighting between the two) traders have nothing to trade. It's all about a "scarce" commodity and a "plentiful" demand. The fact that traders get in the middle oils the machinery.

[krw]

Just got this from SWMBO.

"I won't say lumber prices are high. I wanted to build a birdhouse but the bank turned down my loan."