121–130 of 156 posts
Things like plywood (for furniture) didn't come down in price yet to pre-pandemic levels; hoping they catch up soon. You used to be able to get 3/4 maple 4x8 for ~$50, now it's $85 at Home Depot and over $100 from the local lumberyard.
There was a weird blip of time during the pandemic where cabinet grade plywood was cheaper than CDX sheathing at my local Home Depot. If I was building a house then it would have been cool to sheath it in oak veneer plywood.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Crazy to think people were doing construction and remodeling at 3x typical lumber costs
Labour is the biggest cost of house building. And during a pandemic, that is almost free, since many people are stuck at home with nothing to do.
In Asia, for example, they have doubled.
I'm sure home insurance prices are going to follow shortly after. You know, because that's why they needed to raise prices. Yep, any day now.
And don't say "so pay labor more" because there is a labor shortage in every single industry. If you pay more for job x, job y will also go up, until everyone goes up and then inflation is higher.
Always thought it'd be cool if there was some economic simulation game (simcity, city skylines, etc.) that was tied to real life commodity markets.
I'd be interested to see someone attempt market manipulation IRL to affect their game though.
I'm sure home insurance prices are going to follow shortly after. You know, because that's why they needed to raise prices. Yep, any day now.
Construction prices are still elevated due to labor shortages, lumber is only a minor component. And don't say "so pay labor more" because there is a labor shortage in every single industry. If you pay more for job x, job y will also go up, until everyone goes up and then inflation is higher.
And yes, "just pay more" is the solution. There is no shortage of Lamborghinis, but there is a shortage at $1000. Machine operators near me are paid $12/hour, the equivalent of 2009's minimum wage after inflation adjustment.
Yes, wages are too low. Yes, it's good to pay more money and for everyone to be forced to pay more money for wages. If you want cheap services built on extreme inequality, you're free to move to a 2nd or 3rd world country.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I guess when you cannot get timber i thought timber wasn't the bottleneck here, at least not in the US? from what i know, US timber has a glut of supply, something like 40 years worth of inventory. maybe you meant "lumber"?
Yes. I think the fine-grained differences of meaning here matter. Good call. I am less sure why the same thing happened here in Australia because we have a huge logging, processing and distributing system domestically and for export, but we also had massive shortages of framing supplies. I suspect it was the timber/lumber distinction, maybe the woods available on-shore weren't being directed into framing and this dep…
Prices in Europe still haven't dropped back to their original levels. In my country pellets for heating were €150 per ton in 2021, €600 per ton (and much worse quality) in 2022, and now are around €300 per ton.
This could be a leading indicator for a slow down in real estate.
High prices are their own cure. Given high demand and high margins, people will increase production to meet demand. And yet this is not going to happen because interest rate hikes have doubled the price of new construction.
High interest rates may lower or slow real estate appreciation in the short term, but they also increase it in the long term by killing production increases.
I track price of the gloves. Box of gloves is very close to pre covid level. Used to be $2/box in 2019. now you can get it around $2.5 box.