It appears that lumber pricing (at least plywood and 2X dimensional lumber) has dropped by 15-20% in just a few days.
EIther demand has dropped, supply has gone up, or they ahve simply found the price point where people simply stopped buying.
(that’s (Capitalist) economics 101 for those of you who never took that class in high school)
Now if ammo would do the same we’d be all set.
Here is Ken opining what he thinks drove the prices up and why they are now falling, albeit a little. Sure, the current price drop has been noteworthy, but they shouldn’t have spiked as they did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd13OMzoLEE
Within the hour I had ended a call with my cousin. He has been in the autobody industry since forever. We commiserated on the dearth of workers willing to give an honest days work for an honest days pay.
So what if materials begin to flow again. It is our own government paying taxpayer’s money to keep the workers at home. Of course, it is a large number of workers who are largely unmotivated to earn more than what the government pays to stay unemployed. Even if that government cheese is 1/2 or 2/3rds of an honest wage, the turds without ambition do settle for that.
In my own isolated neck of the woods, I had met two families who decided to delay building their new homes. Today I met another family. All three have decided for the very same reasons; high prices for material and lack of qualified workers.
My cousin added a twist. He is trying to finish a home remodeling project. Of those who will, you know, actually reply to his request for bids, all have so far responded with astronomical bids. This reminds me of when I was in business; never say no to work, just respond with a super high pricing. Yet today, they are not so busy that they are in that position.
A friend of my cousin runs a HVAC business. He has 1,000 homes (Phoenix area) on bid but cannot get to for lack of workers. This is after he was finally able to get the material he needed.
I know this is issue is tangential to the subject of this post, yet in my mind materiel and labor have always been two sides of the same coin. Things out of whack because someone wants them out of whack? I dare say this is another facet of destroying the country.
lumber futures plummeted. still not seeing the drop in my local area. i see hundreds of log trucks hauling ass over the mountain too. i been putting off a large tractor shed project among others. and i still haven’t found anybody to even bid on installing my new hvac system. plug n play easy but no takers. oh well, they’ll be hungry this winter. my old unit is still chugging away for now. i might just take the money for the install n go to school to put them in myself. then undercut them until they starve.
Yeah; people say “HELL, NO!!!.” Demand craters. Inventory piles up. Prices drop. The people who balked sit there and wait it out, seeing if the prices will drop further… Deflation 101…
I was contemplating replacing the leach line on the septic tank at my house, but was told that the Infiltrator pipe that usually costs $20.00 per length is now going for $40-60.00 per length… of you can find it… I’ll flush less and wait more, thanky’ver’much…