Lumber price forecast

Gain the latest forecasting data and commentary for North American lumber prices

Lumber price forecasts for 2023, 2024 and beyond

Know what’s moving your markets and the forces influencing the short- and long-term to reduce uncertainty and anticipate change.

Fastmarkets has a vast team of economic experts dedicated to delivering regular lumber price forecasts for supply, demand and trade for the North American market. These forecasts cover all aspects of the lumber industry, including lumber (green douglas fir, western spruce pine fir, southern yellow pine), engineered lumber (LVL and I-joists) and more.

Fastmarkets’ lumber price forecasts enable you to:

  • Understand the longer-term market landscape and access behind-the-scenes industry data to manage risk, spot opportunities and predict future lumber price trends
  • Validate and add credibility to strategic plans, stakeholder and investor presentations
  • Understand how macroeconomic, geopolitical and housing factors are shifting trade flows
  • Stress test pricing matrixes and cost models for more accurate budgeting
  • Optimize timing of purchasing and inventory management to control costs and ensure supply chain continuity

Talk to us about our market-leading lumber price forecasting data and commentary

Monthly lumber commentary

This commentary provides a monthly economic analysis of the North American softwood lumber markets

North American engineered lumber quarterly

This quarterly summary provides a short-term lumber forecast of supply and demand for engineered wood products, such as laminated veneer lumber (LVL)

North American lumber 5-year forecast

A short-term lumber forecast report that offers insight into demand and capacity, future price movements and end-use markets

North American lumber 15-year forecast

This forecast provides a longer-term economic analysis of the North American lumber market. It covers the commentary on the housing market, softwood lumber and makes extensive use of charts and tables

Discover more about our short- and long-term lumber forecasts
Read the latest lumber market insights, outlooks and news coverage

“There’s just no fear in the marketplace,” one source said.

Learn about how wildfires have influenced lumber prices in recent years.

Read a snippet of our weekly lumber market report, including insights and analysis on price changes and market movements.

Lumber forecasting, price data and other products to help you

A trusted reflection of the forest products markets, even at their most volatile

Delivered to you from reporters embedded in the lumber markets all over the world

With an over 90% accuracy rating, our forecasting helps you understand what direction global lumber prices are heading

Grow and protect your profits and insulate your business from volatility with the Fastmarkets risk management team

Fastmarkets’ events provide immersive experiences across the global forest products markets

Learn how the Fastmarkets platform can help you navigate the fast-moving forest products market

Fastmarkets’ mission is to meet the market’s data requirements honestly and independently, acting with integrity and care to ensure that the trust and confidence placed in the reliability of our pricing methodologies is maintained.

Why use a price reporting agency?

After years of unprecedented volatility, many are wondering “What’s next?” for the North American and global lumber market. Will we see a sudden turnaround in prices that send us back toward record levels? Or will sluggish demand and pricing action persist?

As we frequently remind our subscribers, the future is uncertain and market conditions can change rapidly. Traders and forecasters alike were repeatedly reminded of this with the unprecedented boom-and-bust cycles with lumber and wood product prices over the last three years.

By using a price reporting agency (PRA), you can be prepared for all outcomes. With PRA you can:

  • Ensure that you have the prices you can use that reflect supply and demand conditions
  • Provide a reference and benchmark for all transactions
  • Give confidence to contract counterparties that the prices used are impartial
  • Improve efficiency when renegotiating contracts
  • Deliver instant and accessible data through an automated platform
  • Get access to supply and demand outlooks for lumber, timber and wood products and more to forecast costs
  • Receive breaking news coverage, contextualized within rich industry statistics and datasets

Find out more

Market-reflective prices, forecasts and insights for the global lumber markets: Discover how the Fastmarkets platform can help you make better high-stake decisions for your business


Fastmarkets combines the commodity intelligence of these familiar names:

Metal Bulletin • American Metal Market • Scrap Price Bulletin • Industrial Minerals • RISI • FOEX • The Jacobsen • Agricensus • Palm Oil Analytics • Random Lengths • FastMarkets and more