- High Demand Adds Premium To Lumber

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High Demand Adds Premium To Lumber

By EDWARD D. MURPHY, Portland Press Herald Writer
Copyright © 2004 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
         
Abstract:

A new condo goes up at Ocean Ridge Condominiums in Portland.

The real estate boom, credited with keeping the economy from crumbling during the past three years, is paying dividends to lumber producers.

Prices for framing lumber, plywood and oriented strand board are skyrocketing and some retailers are having trouble keeping enough of the building material in stock.

The price for framing lumber, such as 2-by-4s and 2-by-10s, is 40 percent higher than a year ago, when prices had already started climbing, according to the lumber industry publication, Random Lengths. Prices for structural panels, which include plywood and oriented strand board, are on track to easily exceed the average annual prices for the past eight years and are more than double what they were just two years ago.

"It's a real scramble," said Jon Anderson, the publisher of Random Lengths.  (Read full story at the Portland Press Herald)

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