Lumber prices have skyrocketed more than 180% since last spring, the National Association of Home Builders reports on its NAHBNow blog. The spike in lumber prices has caused the price of an average new single-family home to increase by $24,386 since April 17, 2020, according to NAHB standard estimates of lumber used to build the average home. Similarly, the market value of the average new multifamily home has increased by $8,998 over the same period due to the surge in the cost of lumber.
The latest Random Lengths prices as of mid-February show the price of framing lumber topped $975 per thousand board feet—a 180% increase since last April when the price was roughly $350 per thousand board feet.
NAHB calculated these average home price increases based on the softwood lumber that goes into the average new home, as captured in the Builder Practices Survey conducted by Home Innovation Research Labs.
The National Lumber and Building Material Dealers Association has been lobbying the federal government for years for a renewed Softwood Lumber Agreement with Canada, which would address the current tariff on Canadian softwood lumber.
For more information, see NAHB’s NAHBNow blog, and to learn how NAHB is addressing the lumber crisis, visit nahb.org.
