Lumber prices fall as uncertainty settles

Lumber futures fell below $550 per thousand board feet, hovering at yearly lows as excess supply from winter restocking collided with a 14.2% drop in U.S. single-family housing starts to an annualized 940,000 units in March, pushing new-home inventories to nearly eight months of supply. While a federal directive to raise timber production from public lands by 25% may ease constraints in the long term, the 90-day pause on new reciprocal tariffs has removed near-term urgency for buyers to cover import risks. At the same time, expectations of sharply higher anti ...