Timber Prices Rise On Housing Recovery But Nothing Like Increases For Lumber

Marshall Thomas, president of F&W Forestry Services—one of the nation’s leading forestry management and consulting firms—reports the budding recovery in U.S. home construction is resulting in increased prices for standing timber and a dramatic rise in lumber prices.

Writing in his firm’s spring newsletter—The F&W Forestry Report—Thomas said tree prices in the first quarter across his company’s operating area were up for the second consecutive period.  And price rises for lumber, a building block for the housing industry, were even more dramatic.

“So why don’t sawtimber stumpage prices jump as much as lumber?  It is typical that stumpage prices would lag lumber—it takes a while for price increases to work through the supply chain.  But, and more importantly, it is widely believed that we have accumulated  significant reserves of pine timber on the stump….(B)ut one thing is certain—prices are better than they were and it looks like they may continue to rise….”

TO SEE THE FULL ARTICLE IN THE SPRING 2013 F&W FORESTRY REPORT, SUBSCRIBE NOW.