Lumber Prices Plummet, Opening the Door for Middle and Lower Income Home Buyers to Reenter the Market

The price of lumber has dropped precipitously to under $900 dollars per thousand feet after hitting a record high of $1,686 per thousand feet early last month.

President of the Louisiana Homebuilders Association Tommy Pinion said that huge drop-off is good news for first-time homebuyers and those in the lower and middle-income brackets.

“The average house was costing an extra $36,000 to build and for every $1,000 dollar increase we lose a potential 100,000 customers across the country,” said Pinion who cautioned despite that drop in prices, he does not expect the historically hot housing market to cool off too much in the near future.

“The cost of your homes, is just for some reason everything else has escalated also with the pricing and I do not foresee those prices to go down,” said Pinion.

The price of lumber started the pre-pandemic period in March 2020 at $303 per thousand feet but rose sharply as the pandemic strained the supply chain while there was a simultaneous surge in DIY projects from people stuck at home.

Pinion said one thing is clear, there is a real housing bubble building and he isn’t sure what will happen when it pops