The COVID-19 pandemic is sparking an unprecedented boom in housing sales and remodeling across the country as many Americans seek more space in which to live, work and learn at home. The historic levels of consumer demand over the last year has pushed finished lumber prices to all-time highs and Georgia’s massive timber industry that employs hundreds of thousands of people is struggling to adjust. The latest Georgia Today podcast with guest Ryan Dezember, a reporter at The Wall Street Journal, explores the lumber boom's impact on the state’s critical timber industry and its growers, and what all this could mean for home prices.
Demand for new homes and a rise in DIY renovation projects ate up the lumber supply during the pandemic. Meanwhile, sawmills struggled to keep pace amid COVID-19 setbacks.
The price of lumber has more than doubled during the pandemic. Now people are turning to extreme DIY for building projects. Instead of buying boards, they're buying their own sawmills.
With summer travel plans on hold because of the pandemic, a lot of Americans are putting money into projects around the house. That's taxing lumber supplies and pushing prices higher.
Continuing disputes between the United States and Canada over lumber imports will not get in the way of a new factory announced Wednesday in Bibb County...
