By Tim Glaze | Housing Wire
With lumber prices and other building material costs still at record-high levels, homebuilder confidence fell two points in March, per the latest report from the National Association of Home Builders.
That drop in builder confidence is in spite of sky-high buyer demand, which hasn’t waned despite rising home prices and climbing mortgage rates – the latter up 30 basis points from February.
The COVID-19 pandemic shut down a large swath of lumber mills in early 2020, handcuffing homebuilding crews all over the country and forcing home prices upward. NAHB Chairman Chuck Fowke noted that supply shortages and high demand have caused lumber prices to jump “about 200%” since April 2020.
