On/off tariffs, the pending hike in countervailing duties, and Section 232 National Security Investigation (which designates lumber as a “strategic good” on par with automobiles, steel, and aluminum) stalk the wood frame construction industry. Collectively and individually, these...

Encouraging data including a downtick in inflation and the prospect of interest rate cuts early in the year fueled optimism, bolstered by hopes of deregulation and the extension of tax cuts put into place during the first Trump presidency. Stocks rallied on hopes for a new era of positive growth...

Today, 93% of America’s new homes are built of wood-frame construction. If fully enacted, the implemented and pending tariffs will reduce lumber supply and trigger an increase in lumber price, resulting in a one–two punch for the wood-frame construction industry. As we once again...

We’re starting 2025 with reserved optimism. Investors, the markets, and the world at large are still reviewing, digesting, and anticipating the implications of the results of last year’s U.S. Presidential and Congressional elections. One year ago, analysts and economists still...

Heading into the last quarter of the year, the US economy sent out several strong signals that is remains resilient and robust. Third quarter inflation continued a downward trend, with annualized numbers beginning to approach the Central Bank’s target. But softening of the job market over...

Millions of dollars are being lost by many companies that don’t recognize they have a problem — Does your LBM company have more than $50 million combined sales? Quantified as a ratio of sales, according to Six Sigma case studies, the cost of poor quality, defined as waste,...

What was widely expected has finally happened. Years of very profitable high sales led to vast increases in capacity to meet that demand, but now we have declining sales volume—the classic too much supply versus not enough demand to maintain margins. Some like to call this margin...

The U.S. economy at mid-year continued to show signs of continued resilience and growth—even if such strength remains uneven throughout all sectors. The labor market consistently added jobs in the second quarter but has not kept up with expectations and, more recently, showed signs of...

In the busy world of prefabricated components, there are three conflicting metrics that owners and managers look at to determine operational performance – board feet of lumber, sales dollars, and margin dollars. I’ll start with what I believe is likely the most common but also the...

The first quarter of 2024 ended on a positive note, which hopefully will prove to be a solid foundation for the remainder of the year. Despite lingering inflation, the U.S. economy continued to show resilience and added increasing optimism for the much-sought-after “soft...