- DIY market accounts for 40% of lumber consumption: consultant
- Inventory pile-up is also curbing demand from wholesale buyers
Lumber futures fell as much as 8.4 per cent to $870 a 1,000 board feet in Chicago on Monday, extending a slump to about 30 per cent since the start of March
Lumber prices are slipping to levels seen four months ago as soaring inflation curbs the appeal of do-it-yourself renovators to take on costly new home-improvement projects.
“The DIY sector is eroding because inflation is up,” Russ Taylor, a market consultant at Vancouver-based Russ Taylor Global, said in an interview. “Buyers are just walking away and saying ‘I’m not going to pay that kind of price’.”