{"id":46599,"date":"2021-05-26T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-26T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/lumber-prices-hit-southwest-colorado-like-a-ton-of-bricks\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:32:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:32:44","slug":"lumber-prices-hit-southwest-colorado-like-a-ton-of-bricks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/lumber-prices-hit-southwest-colorado-like-a-ton-of-bricks\/","title":{"rendered":"Lumber prices hit Southwest Colorado like a ton of bricks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Brent
Brent Pinnecoose with Alpine Lumber gathers lumber for delivery Thursday. The skyrocketing price of lumber hasn\u2019t deterred new home builds in La Plata County, as urban migrants continue to find new homes in Southwest Colorado. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Perhaps the smartest commodity investment people could have made over the past year and half would have been lumber.<\/p>\n

Gold prices at the end of the day Tuesday were at $1,899.80 an ounce, up $22.46 from the $1,877.34 they hit on Jan. 1, 2020 \u2013 a 1.2% increase.<\/p>\n

Alpine Lumber Manager Lou Ulrich reported the price of half-inch oriented strand board, used in exterior walls, roofing and flooring, was at $59 a sheet last week, up from $11 per sheet on Jan. 1, 2020 \u2013 a 436% increase.<\/p>\n

\u201cLumber panels are difficult to get, and if you find them, prices are at all-time highs,\u201d Ulrich said. \u201cBut we haven\u2019t seen a decrease in demand here even if costs have increased.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Stacks
Stacks of lumber sit in Alpine Lumber\u2019s yard last week. The National Association of Home Builders announced on April 28 that the national average price increase for 2,000-square-foot home in the past 12 months was $35,872. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

That demand for lumber hasn\u2019t gone down in Durango, despite more than a four-fold increase in price, is testament to the strength of the housing market and the number of remodels going on in La Plata County.<\/p>\n

Ulrich believes the only thing that might drive the price of lumber down anytime soon would be a spike in interest rates, which would make new builds and remodels less attractive.<\/p>\n

Even a good spike in interest rates might not be enough to cool hot lumber prices in Durango if homebuyers are coming from real-estate markets where housing prices are even higher than in La Plata County.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re moving from California, you\u2019re still finding cheaper housing here, and the increased price in lumber doesn\u2019t faze them,\u201d Ulrich said.<\/p>\n

\"Brent
Brent Pinnecoose with Alpine Lumber walks among stacks of lumber last week. Rebekah DeLaMare, executive officer of the Home Builders Association of Southwest Colorado, said lumber supply nationwide has never caught up from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Lumber prices across the country have strengthened like a Category 5 hurricane since the advent of COVID-19, which has sparked a mass migration from bigger cities to desirable smaller towns, and Durango might be landfall for the storm.<\/p>\n

Jake Walsh, owner of JT Builders, said he\u2019s booked solid to build homes and complete remodels through spring 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201c It\u2019s difficult to set cost expectations today for a home we will break ground on in 2022,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, we\u2019re averaging $350 per square foot to build, but the way prices are rising, there may be a day when our client says, \u2018No, I can\u2019t do that.\u2019 But so far I haven\u2019t heard that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lumber isn\u2019t the only cost of building that\u2019s going up. The price for copper, conduit and labor are increasing as well, Walsh said.<\/p>\n

Despite the price increase, if anything, Walsh said demand for his services is only picking up.<\/p>\n

Like Ulrich, Walsh suspects the prime factor that might bring lumber prices and building prices down and cool the red-hot market would be a hefty spike in interest rates.<\/p>\n

With interest rates remaining relatively low at just above 3%, enough people can amortize the increased cost of construction into a 30-year mortgage to keep builders busy for the foreseeable future, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just crazy right now,\u201d he said. \u201cI went from getting a call every once in a while, to getting two or three website submissions a month from potential clients.\u201d<\/p>\n

One concern that has emerged is theft of lumber from job sites.<\/p>\n

\"Dave
Dave Nielson, yard manager with Studs Lumber Co., moves stacks of lumber last week in the yard east of Durango. Jake Walsh, co-owner of JT Builders, says he never thought about security at a job site before the COVID-19 pandemic, but now with the rise in lumber costs, it\u2019s a concern. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWe\u2019re having to consider surveillance and security on the job site these days,\u201d he said. \u201cWe never really worried about that in the past, but with lumber and other building materials being such precious commodities, we need to take job site security into account. We like the phone calls coming in and we like the signed contracts, but it comes with some challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rebekah DeLaMare, executive officer of the Home Builders Association of Southwest Colorado, said lumber supply nationwide has never caught up from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Many people assumed demand for building would crash like much of the rest of the economy with the arrival of the viral pandemic.<\/p>\n

Instead, the opposite occurred.<\/p>\n

With more people staying home, more homeowners began to work on do-it-yourself projects \u2013 building new decks, remodeling kitchens, making additions.<\/p>\n

In addition, social distancing, quarantines of workers and other precautions at lumber mills shrank the availability of lumber.<\/p>\n

The initial effects of the pandemic were followed by increased demand for new builds with the migration from cities to rural locales and small towns.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like the toilet paper rush, right? Everybody needed it, everybody wanted it,\u201d DeLaMare said. \u201cWe saw a huge increase, a huge demand, and the production could not meet that demand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Brent
Brent Pinnecoose with Alpine Lumber assembles an order of lumber last week. Rebekah DeLaMare, executive officer of the Home Builders Association of Southwest Colorado, says the rising cost of lumber and other building materials are making development of attainable housing less likely since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

On April 28, the National Association of Home Builders announced the national average price increase for a 2,000-square-foot home in the past 12 months was $35,872.<\/p>\n

Especially in La Plata County, DeLaMare said the dynamics have all combined to make development of attainable housing even more problematic.<\/p>\n

Between rapidly rising material costs and delays and shortages of getting material, costs are rising at a pace that makes it hard for the financing of attainable housing projects to pencil out, DeLaMare said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s making the risk between attainable and affordable housing projects even bigger, less manageable,\u201d she said. \u201cSo now you just have this perfect storm culminating with the right \u2013 or if you will, the wrong \u2013 circumstances to create an absolute unattainable price and supply chain.\u201d<\/p>\n

parmijo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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