ASHLANDJohn Staats might be sitting on a gold mine.
Staats, a construction technology teacher at Ashland County-West Holmes Career Center, has worked alongside his students for over 16 years building houses for the Ashland community.
This year is unlike any other.There'sa housing boom that shows no sign of stopping anytime soon, he said.
Staats and his students build a house every two years and then auction it to people in the community. It gives students experience in electrical, plumbing, construction, painting and house maintenance. Their current housing project will be auctioned at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 15, at the Career Center.
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Construction for the gray-tinted house started in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic began. Before the lumber shortage and housing boom.
Working from home spurred many folks to dream up remodeling projects — from decks to home offices and even major additions.
And the flow of stimulus checks into bank accounts, coupled with canceled vacations, which saved peopleeven more money, caused many homeowners to tackle ambitious improvement projects.
But with this rise in home projects also has come an increase in prices for building materials, particularly lumber.
Before Staats goes to school, he'll sometimes stopat Home Depot in Ashland to pick up some wood for upcoming projects. Last fall, on one of the stops, he noticedprices increasing tremendously.
Staats used to be able to get three-quarter-inch sheets of 4-by-8feet wood flooringfor $23 to $25. Now, he said, that sheet costs about $69.
Lumber continues to sell
Lumber prices have continued to increase throughout the pandemic, leading prices to reach a record-high of $1,600 per thousand board feet. In return, this has caused the price of an average new single-family home to increase by $35,872, according to an analysis by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB.)The National Association ofRealtors hastracked a record 17.2% surge in median sale prices of existing homes.
Previous houses built by Staats and his students generally sold for $65,000 to $70,000.The spike in demand for new housing coupled with the skyrocketing lumber pricescould make for an interesting auction, Staats said
Darren Shultz, president of the Home Builders Association ofPortage and Summit counties, said the rising costs have not deterred most homeowners from forging ahead, noting his phone keeps ringing at his business, Shultz Design and Construction, which specializes in larger remodels and new home constructionaround the Portage Lakes area.
He's hearing the same thing from others during his travels as a Home Builders Association president.
"By no means is lumber prices going up all doom and gloom," Shultz said.
Staats' phone also has been ringing more than usual with construction employers looking for fresh-out-of-high school trade students.
"I've been getting three to four calls a week with employers looking for workers," Staats said. "There seems to be an employee shortage."
New housing development projects like Arrows Landing off Mifflin Avenue in Ashland are in the beginning stages of construction during the volatile lumber market surge. Arrows Landing will have 43 housing lots, which are still on the market.
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Arrows Landing housing models are expected to be shown by July 1, then houses can start being purchased by future home owners.
"Once homes are available andpurchase agreements have been signed your [buyer] price will be locked in," Realtor Brock Rader said.
A 2,000-square-foot ranch style home in Ashland would cost $272,000 in this current market, according to builder 89 Homes and Building Improvements. In just the last month, lumber package prices have risen 22% for the builder, a direct correlation tohousing prices. The companyalso is expecting lumber and housing prices to increase far into spring 2022.
In 2020, the same 2,000-square-foot home would have cost $238,000 from 89 Homes and Builders Improvements.
It's a supply issue
Neil Burkholder, owner of NeilCo LLC building supplies, has about 30 employees, but has started searching for more workers at the Career Center, a first for the company.
Burkholderhas not only seen lumber prices go up, but also metal. In April, he said he saw a significant increase in metal and lumber sales.
"Last spring when COVID-19 hit we were expecting hard times," Burkholder said. "But we had great sales."
Though Burkholder has seen encouraging sales, NeilCo has had to pay record prices for lumber, causing prices to increase.Last year, Burkholder was selling 16-foot 2x4s for $6.49. Now, the price is$17.49 per piece.
"There's hardly any available," Burkholder said. "I'm expecting it to continue to go up.
"It'll probably level out soon, but now I'm telling people the sky's the limit," Burkholder said. "My gut feeling is seeing an increase in the summer. In the fall,we hope things will stabilize."
Burkholder started noticing lumber prices were going up in January, after a stable market period in late October to November. Though, when prices went up, sales followed the same trajectory.
"Right now there's a really big gap between the supply and demand," Burkholder said. "Not enough product to supply the demand."
With the little-to-no supply of lumber, Burkholder said, he purchases lumber well ahead of time through the company's contractor. Before the spike it wouldnormally come in two weeks after the order is placed.
"Right now we're seeing it take eight to 10 weeks or even longer," Burkholder said. "Out of contract, we wouldn't get it at all till September."
Lumber, materials sold before hitting shelves
It doesn't look like there's a lumber scarcity when you walk around the yard at Graves Lumber Co.in Copley.
Lumber and building supplies fill the large open storage barns.
Every piece is accounted for, PresidentEd Belair said.
Long before a rail car rumblesup with lumber from Canada or a truck rolls in from a factory that makeswindows, Belair said, these items already havebeen sold.
There is no stock simply collecting dust anymore.
And with the scarcity of supplies, Belair said, even with the large volume of material that comes in and out of his yard, he's even having trouble keeping up with the demand.
What’s driving building material shortages?
Belair attributes the scarcity to a lot of factors:
- The slowdown in the construction of new homes dating back to the Great Recession of 2008, when everything in the sector ground to a halt. The construction of new homes has lagged behindever since.
- And then the pandemic hit. Thiswreaked havoc on everything. Some mills shut down. Factories that supply the pieces and parts for construction material shuttered, too. The virus hit workers, creating more delays among the mills and factories still open.
- Thedeep freeze in Texas. This chill created power outages and frozen pipes in factories that make critical ingredients for everything from the pigments used to color siding to the resin that keeps the wood particles together in construction boards.
- And there's that unpredictable human nature factor. When things seemed bleak at the height of the pandemic, instead of hunkering down, many homeowners went on a home improvement spending spree, Belair said.
The prices and scarcity of lumber have spilled over to other building materials, too.
Prices are up on everything, Belair said, and windows that could be ordered and delivered within three weeks can now take up to eight weeks to arrive.
Talking to other folks in the industry, Belair said, the "unhinged" lumber and building supply market will likely not calm down and get back to some semblance of a new normal until 2022.
"It's a challenging time for everyone," he said.
Akron Beacon Journal staff writer Craig Webb contributed to this article.
Reach Grant at gritchey@gannett.com
On Twitter: @ritchey_grant
