Lumber Prices Slump With Rising Interest Rates

Lumber prices have come crashing down in a new sign of how rising interest rates are deflating markets that boomed during the pandemic.

Wood prices were a leading indicator of the supply-chain problems and inflation that followed pandemic lockdowns. Prices shot up in the summer of 2020 as cooped-up Americans remodeled en masse and demand for suburban houses soared. By last spring, lumber cost more than twice the prepandemic high. Now, two-by-four prices are flashing caution.