Homebuilding requires lots of wood. Low mortgage rates in the US in 2018 prompted a boom in demand for new homes, which lifted the price of nearby lumber futures to an all-time high of $659 per 1,000 board feet. At the same time, trade frictions between the US and Canada, as the Trump administration renegotiated the NAFTA agreement, causing supply concerns to increase. The US imports wood from the timberlands in Canada to satisfy building requirements.
Lumber can be a highly volatile commodity. Since May 2018, the price has traded from its record peak to