As the pause on travel has been forcing people to stay home, renovation projects have been popular.
Due to plants being shut down in the spring and some not even open at full capacity yet, production numbers have been low as consumer demands have skyrocketed.
Chuck Connolly, the owner of Big Change Home Improvement says that the price from even just a few months ago is drastically different, “I have a bill from a job I did in February and the price of lumber was $16.75, now the same stuff is $35.”
Not only has the price gone up but the wait time to receive supplies is backed up. Waiting for products like windows or tiles have wait times of upwards of 17 weeks. “They’re back in production but they are having a really hard time catching up,” says Connolly.
These increased prices have only come to light in the last month after the wood was bought for summer projects and plants were still shut down. “People were building COVID decks and COVID fences. Homeowners were buying up all the wood that was out there.”
Connolly says he quoted prices for customers and then after got word from plants that the price had gone up, “It’s hard going back to people and tell them it’s going to be more. Most are accepting of that and say they understand.”
These higher prices look like they might be here to stay for the foreseeable future, “when places are asking for that kind of money and people are still buying it, that price may stay right where it is,” says Connolly.
With the supply and demand out of order, it looks like the price of building a house for the next few years is going to be $8,000 to $10,000 more expensive.
