How COVID’s Causing A Lumber Price Increase And Why You’ll Care
Learn How Else COVID-19 Could Impact Your Home Life In Atlanta
The lumber price increase is due to a shortage of lumber. This shortage is happening because people are spending more time at home.
Find out more below-
What’s Happening Here?!
“For real! Why is it that home projects are so expensive right now?” asks Will.
Jessica sighs and shrugs her shoulders. “I don’t know. All I do know is that building a deck wasn’t nearly as expensive last year as it is now.”
Will frowns. “Well, if I had to guess, I’d say it’s COVID-19 related. It’s one of the biggest, most disruptive events we’ve had this year.” Jessica unlocks her phone. “I’m going to look around Google and see what I can find. Maybe it’s just a lumber price increase or something. I wonder what the cost of a home addition in Atlanta is right now.”
Will scoots over so he can look with her. They search for a while until they finally have all the pieces of the puzzle put together.
Here is what they find:
Why Lumber Prices Are Increasing In 2020
According to magazine.realtor, “They’ve reached a record high of more than $800 per 1,000 board feet, a common industry measure. Recent price spikes in lumber have added more than $16,000 to the typical cost of a new single-family home.”
A lot of this is due to businesses that provide materials for projects being unable to work at max capacity. They were closed down and now they can maybe work with half their total team. This means more backorders and longer lead times which leads to a higher cost in the market.
It’s almost impossible to do the same amount of work with fewer people, let alone while also keeping costs down.
NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz says “…remodelers are reporting double-digit percentage increases for material pricing…” “With refinancing activity surging, homeowners are investing in their homes, which is sustaining strong demand for remodeling,” said NAHB Remodelers Chair Tom Ashley, Jr… “As a result of the rapid changes for work and the economy after the virus-induced recession, homes are serving multiple roles such as school, office, and gym.”
The reason people are doing more home projects is that they’re staying home more due to COVID.
This leads to people’s homes becoming their office, school, gym, and more. Kids in all age groups are having to take classes from home. This means people need more room or they start going stir-crazy.
Also, since they are staying home instead of going on vacation, people want to upgrade their homes. They do this with remodels or home additions like decks and outdoor living spaces. Outdoor spaces are great for relaxing and seeing small groups of friends during COVID.
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“So that’s why! It makes sense because it’s just like us. We’re spending more time at home so we want to upgrade it. It takes lumber to do that and there isn’t much because it’s all being used. That makes it harder to get and thus more expensive,” Jessica sums up. “Let’s see what else we can learn on this blog,” suggests Will.