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Investors have basically shrugged at hotter-than-expected inflation data this morning, perhaps because the 10-year yield is indicating overall inflation worries have been easing
Spiking lumber costs splinter Clark County homebuilders’ budgets
Published: May 15, 2021, 6:04am
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3 Photos Stacks of lumber sit on the lot ready to be used to construct apartment buildings on Friday at the Latitude 45 apartment complex in Vancouver. Local builders have had to navigate rising lumber prices amid a national spike in demand. (Joshua Hart/The Columbian) Photo Gallery
When Vancouver-based Ginn Development began work on the Latitude 45 apartments in 2019, the cost of lumber per unit for the east Vancouver complex was $8,188.
Phase 2 of the project kicked off this year a similarly sized cluster of similarly designed apartment buildings on an adjacent parcel of land. The lumber cost per unit: $22,805.
Lumber prices have shot to fresh records, defying the normal winter slowdown in wood-product sales in a sign that the pandemic building boom is bowling into 2021.
Records have been set across species, products and grades, according to pricing service Random Lengths. It has never cost more to buy oriented strand board, known as OSB and used for walls, Southern yellow pine, which is favored for fences and decks, or ponderosa pine, which is popular in cabinetry and interior trim.
Many engineered wood products used in new construction, such as I-joists, are in short supply, and mills are backlogged with orders well into March, the pricing service said. Last week, its Random Lengths Framing Lumber Composite price rose to $966 per thousand board feet, exceeding the $955 high set in September.