On CBC Radio this morning, I heard that Canfor will be closing the mill in the small town of Mackenzie, BC, home to 5,000 people, because of “reduced demand due to a slowed housing starts in the US.” Another article said “Canfor, like most forest companies, is facing mounting pressures including a strengthening Canadian dollar and a slumping U.S. building market.”
Not sure if anyone noticed, but there were articles out recently about new economic data from the States, including a huge drop in median housing prices: “the median price of a new home sold last month fell to $229,100, a record 11.1 per cent decline from March that indicated builders are slashing prices in an effort to move a huge overhang of unsold homes.” Apparently, “the median price dropped by the largest amount on record.” Further, “the drop in median prices in April compared with March was a record one-month decline. If the April sales price was compared to the sales price a year ago, the decline was 10.9 per cent, the biggest year-over-year drop since 1970.”
Interesting… but how will we be impacted? (Besides the forestry industry already mentioned.)
Well as the US housing market tanks and Canada’s follows suit we will see a reversion to the mean of everything else that is out of whack. Unemployment is at an all time low, so we will surely see lots of more layoffs eventually and an overall downturn in the economy.