Prices for lumber, the pandemic’s hottest commodity, have been in decline ever since the Fed began raising interest rates, dousing the sizzling housing market. Lately, futures have traded for less than $400 per thousand board feet. They haven’t been so low since June 2020, when many Americans were still in lockdown. It was around then that the market for suburban homes was heating up, stuck-at-home Americans remodeled en masse and bars and restaurants raced to build outdoor dining spaces. Sawmills were caught off guard and wood prices exploded, a sign of the inflation and snarled supply chains that would come do define the economic reopening. [END]