Surging lumber prices put buying a home out of reach for many Americans
CBSN
The price of lumber in the U.S. has tripled during the coronavirus pandemic, adding thousands of dollars to the cost of a new house.
Framing lumber was priced at $1,200 per thousand board feet as of late April, a 250% increase from the year-ago period when the price was about $350, according to an analysis from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). For house hunters, that adds an average of nearly $36,000 to the price of a home, the trade group said. "Right now I can't tell anybody how much a house is going to cost," Alicia Huey, a homebuilder in Alabama, told CBS News correspondent Mireya Villarreal.More Related News
Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.