Free Falling

Things will get worse here for the forestry sector.

The largest market for lumber is the US and people seem to think that things are going to get better there this summer.

Think again.

In the US there are over 20 million vacant homes. That is right 20 million houses that no one is living in. They are foreclosed, for sale, abandoned or trashed. In Canada there are 20 million homes in total. There are just as many vacant homes in the US as there are in total in Canada.

There will be no new homes to be built now or anytime soon. I know of people from Alberta who have money and have gone down to Vegas or Phoenix and bought homes that are in nice neighbourhoods and would be comparable to new homes in College Heights in Prince George. Homes here are $300,000. The ones down there $50,000 to $100,000. A person I know from Calgary just went to Vegas in February and bought 6 homes all at once for $300,000 and he paid cash. They are all being resold to friends and family.

To top it off Vegas now has a mosquito problem. Why is this a concern? It is from all the new homes that were built that had swimming pools installed and the water is just sitting. There are over 20,000 vacant newly built homes in the Vegas area that empty will over 80% of those homes never lived in.

So do you think that the mills will be starting production soon?

Short URL: http://northernbcbusiness.com/?p=107

Posted by oneadam on 6:21 pm. Filed under Forest Industry, Viewpoints. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry