Jan.-March, 2008
US Housing Downturn Hits the Timber Markets
The historic housing collapse in the United States will continue in 2008 before markets will show signs of a recovery in 2009, according to a new forecast by the Western Wood Products Association.
The lumber trade association has forecast that housing starts in the U.S. will reach just 968,000 in 2008, less than half the total in 2005, and making 2008 the worst year for new construction since the Second World War.
Single-family starts will be off by 60 per cent from the 2005 total, which peaked at more than two million, according to the forecast by the association. Analysts have noted the collapse in U.S. housing demand has also been exacerbated by the U.S. sub-prime mortgage crisis, which has made credit harder to get and sent ripples of uncertainty through Wall Street.With more than 40 per cent of lumber used annually in the U.S. in new home construction, lumber demand is expected to decline to 45.3 billion board feet this year, the Western Wood Products Association also forecast.
Source: Western Wood Products Association