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Went to Lowes yesterday to get some stuff to finish my shop. I knew prices on materials was up but holy fugg. 2x4x8 fir studs $6.38. 4x8x5/8 sanded plywood, $41. Insulation and Romex prices equally ridiculous. thank goodness i have been collecting used lumber for the past few years because otherwise i would be selling a kidney. this is going to seriously crimp my plans on finishing the inside for a while. i am just going to do enough to get my benches set up and tools wired. hopefully the prices will come down sometime in the next 6 months. i might even go the rough cut route. from what i see studs are around 2 bucks and pine siding is 60 cents a BF. still high for rough cut but not as bad as finished lumber. just need to let it dry for a year. really puts a damper on my plans for the winter.

Same here,I picked up some pvc fittings last week and they were about 25% higher.
I do believe it will come down some,but I think not to where it was before.
Construction here has been jamming,but I also think this will slow some as well.

Rem, how fussy are you on the fit? It might work using the green lumber?

This will slow the economy down a lot in the building sector.

wabi, not real fussy on fit, my main reason for letting RC dry is to keep it from shrinking and cracking around the screws/nails. it also depends on how long since it was cut too. i am going to the mill next week to see what the deal is with it. i also did not want to plunk down a wad of cash all at once to do the inside which i would have to do with RC. i was going to do some every paycheck. but if it means saving a bunch, then i will write a big check and get it over with. i have some guns i have been meaning to turn into cash anyway. just need to do the hassle of selling them.

thats what i figure. hell the price to build a house just doubled.

When our son, and I feel ornery, we might say, this is from True Grit, "Do what you think best Ned."

One of my son's friends sold his house moved in with his parents to save some more money to build a brand new house. All that is on hold now.

I made my living as a home builder for over 40 years starting in the 50s.
Back then there were lumber yards, hardware stores, appliance stores and plumbing and electrical supply houses.
Today there is Lowes, Home Depot and very little else.
Not all that hard to figure out.

its not a matter of who sells it, its the fact that this chinese schit virus has screwed the supply chain royally. i prefer to use local joints too but Lowes gives a 10% veteran discount and thats hard to ignore.

Nice “story” but all those places still exist

One factor could be that interest rates are about zero.

Most, but not all, businesses will do what they always do. Raise prices to cover their increased costs, then add a bit to increase their profit, pass the cost on to the end customer, while wringing their hands and claiming they were forced to raise their prices due to what they had to pay. It is the free market at work, supply and demand, because the customer needs or wants the item enough to pay whatever it costs, and is conditioned to do so.

There will be winners and losers so to speak, and inflation will rule the day.

free market my azz. sick of hearing that. it is just greed and thieving done by POS supply houses. same thing happened in communist east europe where people would hoard cut supply then sell at high prices. they didnt have "free" markets

All the destruction from the natural disasters this year has increased demand.
And since many places are restrictive on what you can do a lot of people have been doing building projects at home. More demand.
Then the fires and covid work force reductions have affected the supply.

Imagine what the difference between insurance payouts and rebuild costs are going to be in fire areas with these elevated prices...

If you add in the tax they were probably about $7 a piece.

2x4x8' is 5.3 board feet of fir... so about $1.20 per board foot.

$1,200 per K is very high.

I suspect with the arson fires it may stay fairly high out west. Good luck fellas.

I was milling my own maple trees last year...

I think between fuel and blades I was around $0.20 a board foot.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/cQyassR6qxpQzArj7

How has this affected the price of standing timber?

Standing timber is like a farmer's crop, sometime it is a crop.

End price increases don't compare standing prices.

Decreases however, are immediately seen.

Funny how in most things but oil, the prices increases start at the end.

Demand, supposedly.


Oil prices, the increases are usually driven by supply.

But, we haven't seen any real supply issues in 40 years.
Last time I saw where someone couldn't actually buy all they wanted
was in the 70's or early 80's. (Not counting disasters)