Timber Market Financials: 3Q14

Timber markets across the Southeast continue to improve steadily, tracking as expected with the housing market recovery and growing worldwide demand for timber and biofuel products. Prices for pine products show a slight decrease quarter over quarter while hardwood continues to improve. All product groups are up year over year, continuing a growth trend since the 2008 recession. 

The big winner is hardwood sawtimber, which shows a more than $6 jump year over year, or a nearly 24% increase. Hardwood pulpwood growth is strong as well with a 19% increase of its own. We are projecting that hardwood markets will continue to show increases in the near-term. If you have hardwood that you have considered harvesting, talk to us about timing your sale to take full advantage of the market movement.

Pine product year over year increases are still respectable: Sawtimber (+5%), Chip-n-saw (+4%), and Pulpwood (+4%). Florida and Georgia were the leaders in the southeast pine pulpwood markets, both with stumpage prices over $14/ton, and Florida nearing $15.

In other market news, housing starts and home improvement projects are still growing, but at a slower rate than expected earlier this year. Fuel prices dropped lower this quarter.

In real estate, average timberland transaction prices in the South were around $1,800/acre, well above the nationwide average of $1,475 and last year's south-wide average of $1,595. This may well be a time to consider divesting timber assets from your portfolio. If you would like to discuss, give us a call.


Source: Timber Mart-South, The Journal of Southern Timber Prices, 3rd Quarter 2014, Vol. 39, No. 3