Blooming housing market with lumber shortages in Arkansas, not the best combo

Conway, Arkansas – Blooming housing market and lumber shortages in the same time cause issue for everyone in the industry in Arkansas recently.

Lumber prices have gone to the sky lately. But not only the prices skyrocketed, the demand is so high that it causes shortage and delay in building industry.

“Lumber is a commodity so just like a stock, the more it’s in demand, the higher it goes,” said president of Lumber One Home Center Adam Wells.

Like other goods, the reason for the high prices goes back to the start of the pandemic.

The recent increase in demand of building houses with the lowered interest rates due to pandemic, cause the shortage. If we add the lowered activity of the companies in the start of the pandemic due to uncertainty, we get to this position.

“Overall, the market was somewhere around 360 to 380 percent up,” Wells said. The high prices lowered the demand and now we can see lowered prices, Wells added. It’s a relief for everyone.

Home builders are also not happy with the latest trends as they can’t make long-term plans with the market being uncertain. A house that costed no more than $22,000 before the pandemic, now will cost almost $50,000 for the very same model.

No one can say for sure when lumber prices will return to normal, or if they’ll ever return to normal at all. If the trend with high prices continues, we will see even more higher prices on all lumber-related goods and items in upcoming months.