Yeah the missus and I had a vacation trip planned for our 25th anniversary. But when the Covid shut everything down we decided to build a pergola for the back yard using some of the money from the trip.

Had to go to three different lumber yards here in town to find enough clear rough-cut cedar to do the job--and that was back in late April. Things were already getting tight.

Might be a good time for me to start selling my old barn wood....

Its always been a good time to sell old barn wood, the yippies love it.

Ive 3 skids of OSB, one skid of 3/4 advantech? locking decking and 400 framing 2x4-s and a 100 8 footers I bought 3.5 years ago stored cool, indoors and covered. .... im fixin to hit CL and sell by the sheet and stick.

Mopar parts money there.

I blame the builders. If they built reasonably sized homes instead of the maximum allowable on the lot there would be more materials available. I honestly don't know who is buying those things or why. There are subdivisions around here with 4000 sq. ft. homes on postage stamp sized lots - so close the gutters touch. The day the new owners move in there's a "room for rent" sign at the curb!

Come on now, we still have our freedoms right?

If someone wants to build a house 2x the size they need and can afford it and pay the bills thats great, better then 4 1000sq ft welfare homes on the tax payers dime.

Parts money...Great idea!

I know 4 people that sold homes this summer all sold in 1 or 2 days for asking price or above. Prices ranged from $400k to $750k.
Lady across the street sold her house 3 times in 1 month.
Houses over $1M + are actually losing value around here.

I'd tend to agree after reading some of the responses here. pretty much no shortage of building mat'l here on the right coast, I do my home repairs/remodeling so I see the base/mat'l costs only, and honestly while everything increases gradually in price, home building mat'l costs here haven't really been all that outrageous, and all the lumber yards/home box stores that I've patronage for the last 25+ years are always fully stocked..... about the only shortages/price gouge we see is plywood during hurricane season

The border is not closed to commerce, just to non essential travel. Now, the tariffs, that's a whole different story. I have always been of the opinion that the only beneficiary of them is the government. The actual cost is a burden only to the end user. The government rakes in fees, the middlemen adjust their wholesale prices to maintain their profits, and the end user (you and me) pay for it all.

Not sure i exactly agree, they markup for a profit all their material costs, and if that includes a tariff, it also is in included in the markup. Its not overly disclosed, but that's business, make it anywhere you can. Puiblic always gets it in the end.

I work in commercial construction. Some of the delays in stupid stuff like light fixtures is crazy. I have read that the lack of inventory will ease up by November/December, but I doubt we will see much of any reduction in prices.

We ordered our light fixtures 2 months ago, and were told 1-2 weeks. Not only do we still not have them, they haven't even made it to the US warehouse. We were just told now the arrival date is 9/7, which means we won't likely have them for 1-2 weeks after that.

Just checked again on the stove/fridge we ordered, no ETA. Flooring is supposed to be 9/1, but that's not going to happen, I don't think.

Furniture, we ordered 7/4, and were told 6 weeks. On Thursday, they called and said "sometime in October."

Last weekend I went buy some 3/4 plywood for a work table project. $45 a sheet for just just basic pine. I paid $33 in June. This week I had to buy some osb to board the windows for the hurricane.....$23 a sheet usually $12 or less..2x4s over $4. It’s nuts.

I can’t imagine the cost to actually build a house now.

Hope you made it thru this one better than Rita. You're right about the OSB. I was in Home Depot the other day for something, and noticed the price for 7/16 osb was almost $17 a sheet when there wasn't even a tropical system on the water! I paid $6 a sheet when I built my garage in 2007!

The slight 15 mile jog kept the main damage a few miles east. We had 50-70mph winds. Amazing to be within 40 miles as the crow flys away from lake Charles and not have near the damage. My power went out at 1:30am but was back on by 10am. I also just put in a generac in June after selling my Satellite.
I was wondering if you were out working the storm.

Doors and door hardware are really crazy lead times right now, too. Steel doors, fire doors, wood--all have unusually long lead times.

I bought a couple of 2x4s 8' long from the local lumberyard as I like to do business locally...Damned near 10.00 each!

Our gas range died two days ago. Yesterday we started shopping, and almost everything is out of stock with no date. We bought one that might be delivered in late October, but I don't have a good feeling about that.

We ordered ours months ago, still no ETA.

Wife is in a tizzy about holiday baking, but the upside is that I'll probably smoke a turkey breast again for Thanksgiving. Good recipe.