In April 2020, softwood lumber prices rested at $350 per thousand board feet. Ten months later, that price is now $975 per thousand board feet, bringing the average price of a new home to $24,386 higher, according to estimates from the National Association of Home Builders. These estimates include lumber used for structural framing, sheathing, flooring, interior walls, cabinets, doors, decking, and more. While the average price of new single-family homes has increased greatly, the market value of an average new multifamily home increased by $8,998.
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The softwood products considered include lumber of various dimensions (including any that may be appearance grade or pressure treated for outdoor use), plywood, OSB, particleboard, fiberboard, shakes and shingles — in short, any of the products sold by U.S. sawmills and tracked on a weekly basis by Random Lengths.
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