Price of Lumber Stable In Spite Of Powerful Hurricanes

Targeted News Service

The National Association of the Remodeling Industry issued the following news release:

The late summer trifecta of Hurricanes Gustav, Hanna and Ike have not driven up the cost of wood like past storms.

"I've heard horror stories of prices flying up," said Cory Crowell, who plans on putting down a new hardwood floor in his home. "The wood always becomes harder to get as the costs go up, and we're not looking forward to that."

Conventional wisdom is that all types of wood are used to board up homes in the path of hurricanes, blowing in the laws of supply and demand. Over the last few weeks however, costs have remained the same.

"To this point, we haven't seen anything that would significantly change prices," said Bob Witt from the Knoxville-based Witt Building Material Company. "When it's a real tight market it can have more of an affect, but right now our market is not really tight and there are adequate supplies out there."

One of the reasons that wood is not at a premium is because of less new house construction.

"It's been great," said Kate Groover, from the National Association of the Remodeling Industry. "Everyone was concerned with what the results were going to be after Gustav, because material prices have been higher in the last six months."

Witt Building Material also said that in the past, homeowners would buy wood supplies based on how much damage a storm could do. Now that's not case, so the company doesn't expect prices to fluctuate much.

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