BOSTON — It’s a sign of spring as people think about home improvement projects or buying a new house. Consumers could get hammered by a new reality this year: the price of wood is at a record high, which is making those types of purchases much more expensive.
“This is an issue of supply and demand,” explained Marc Osborne, vice president of Purchasing at National Lumber in Mansfield. “We happen to have the situation over the last year where we had drastically reduced supply, and at the same time, drastically increased demand and the way the market operates, prices go up.”
Actually, way up, according to Osborne. He said a year ago a wood price index stood at about 400.
“Right now, it’s at 1002, so it’s up two-and-a-half times,” he said.
With working from home and not traveling, homeowners are upgrading their homes any way they can. Osborne said many will be stunned as they price out their projects. He said people may think they have an idea of prices based on a neighbor’s experience from a couple of years ago.
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“It’s going to be more than double what it was, just from the materials alone,” he said.
And that’s only if all the necessary materials are even available for the project.
“You might have all the deck boards ready and all the banisters necessary for the railing, but you don’t have the railing itself,” Osborne said.
Ellen Perko is an associate principal and senior project manager at CBT Architects in Boston. She’s now working with less wood on some projects. For example, a four-story staircase at a Back Bay townhouse was designed with exposed steel because some wood products were not available.
Perko said clients are always juggling three competing demands on a project: aesthetics, scheduling and cost. She said if cost and budget are major concerns, a homeowner may want to rethink the schedule and see if they can hold off for a little while.
Both Perko and Osborne expect prices to moderate eventually as sawmills get back up to full capacity. In the meantime, there is now enormous pressure on the cost of new housing.
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The National Association of Home Builders estimates these record-high prices are now adding about $25,000 on average to the price of a new home.
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