Soaring Lumber Costs Caused by Historic Demand and Climate-Related Shortages

By Chris Hudson | May 13, 2021

Illustration by @drawnwell

DESIGN DATA

A spate of recent articles, including in The Atlantic, The New York Times, and Valley News (which covers the Fargo-Moorhead area), have charted the skyrocketing costs of lumber this year. Two numbers illustrate the dramatic spike: Lumber traded in the high $300s for 1,000 board feet between 2015 and 2019 and leapt to more than $1,100 in April 2021, according to Fastmarkets. The jump has added more than $35,000 to the cost of an average new single-family home, according to the National Association of Home Builders. A pandemic-fueled wave of homebuilding and home renovations is a leading factor in the rising costs. Other major factors are a run of severe wildfire seasons and extended bark-eating-beetle outbreaks in Canada, both driven by rising global temperatures due to climate change.

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