U.S. housing markets in recent months continued to plummet specifically in the southern and western regions. In June 2022, US housing starts were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of about 1.56 million units, which is about 2% down from June 2022 and 6.3% down from a year ago. The lumber markets also followed the housing markets’ downward trend. Lumber prices declined precipitously at around $600 per thousand board feet in recent weeks.
In the second quarter of 2022, markets for all stumpage products expect pine pulpwood dropped slightly in North Carolina (NC). Contrary to the usual trend of prices to rise in the second quarter each year, southwide average timber prices across the product fell this quarter. According to TimberMart-South, in 2022 Q2 state-wide average pine sawtimber prices in NC were about $29.5/ton, down 3.3% from last quarter and down 3.2% from the price a year ago. However, it was still over 10.5% above the south-wide average pine sawtimber prices. The pine sawtimber prices in eastern NC remained strong at about $34.5/ton in this quarter, which remained flat from the 1st quarter of 2022. Similarly, statewide average pine chip-n-saw prices were $21.9 per ton, down 6.7% from last quarter.
