What are you paying for an 8 foot 2x4 today?

[RMDavis]

At my local Menards (a large midwestern US lumber yard / big box store)  $11.72 each... [eek]

 

[twistsol]

On 8/16/2019 I paid $2.29 each
On 8/04/2020 I paid $4.20 each and I was appalled at the price.
Today at my local Menards they are $10.40 each. $7.98 at Home Depot and $10.28 at Lowes

 

[harry_]

$7.98 at my local HD.

 

[Erich]

Ditto the $7.98 on a white wood 2 x 4 -8 stud here in the Houston Texas market. 

 

[squall_line]

I had some termite damage repaired in mid-2019 on a house we sold later that year.  At the time, I had over a dozen 8' fir studs that I had gotten for free back in 2003, straight as arrows and in great shape.  I asked the carpenter if he wanted them, and he said that he never bought any more lumber than he needed for a job and always tossed the scraps and leftovers.

We left the studs when we moved because my wife was tired of moving them from one house to the next.

Who knew that stack would be worth over $120 less than 2 years later?

 

[Peter_C]

And yet the prices paid for the trees coming out of the forest are no where near that level *shakes head* Someone's getting rich...just not the folks supplying the wood. The demand from the mills is not very high either, or they would pay more.

 

[Bob D.]

It may have to do with transportation costs, or the limited number of drivers available.

Tanker truck drivers are in high demand and I have read recently that the driver shortage is partially behind the rise in fuel prices.

 

[Cypren]

$7.63 for Douglas fir 2x4x8 here in Los Angeles.

From what I've been reading, the shortage isn't the timber, it's the sawmill capacity. Seems like it's mill owners who are the ones capturing the extra coin in this situation. Makes sense, because everyone knows the sudden boom in construction is temporary, and a high volume sawmill is a high capital investment with long lead time. New capacity won't come online for months at the soonest, and when prices go back to normal, won't be any more profitable than normal, so no one wants to be stuck holding the bag.

 

[ChuckM]