Is the lumber market crashing?

Is the lumber market crashing?

By Fergal McAlinden
Canadian Mortgage Professional Magazine
October 11, 2022

Russ Taylor

After surging to record highs at the pinnacle of North America’s pandemic housing market boom, lumber prices have taken a tumble in 2022 and recently hit their lowest point of the year to date. A spike in borrowing costs and a cooler housing market saw lumber futures plummet to a low of $413 per thousand board feet at the end of September, 64% down over their peak this year, with the sky-high prices of 2021 a distant memory. Higher mortgage rates are “dampening everything” where the lumber market is concerned, according to Vancouver-based wood market expert Russ Taylor. He told Canadian Mortgage Professional that while housing starts were still trending relatively well, those weren’t necessarily the best measure of the construction industry’s health in Canada because starts are currently “dramatically” ahead of completions. “You can’t keep starting homes and not completing them,” he explained.

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