Lumber prices more than doubled last year to touch a record high, but the rally has faded on the back of a rebound in supplies (Market Watch)

Lumber futures climbed 115% in 2020, after hitting a record settlement of $928.20 per 1,000 board feet on Sept. 1. Most of the lumber manufacturing supply chain initially shut down when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, creating a supply constraint, says Joe Sanderson, managing director of natural resources at Domain Timber Advisors…Many lumber manufacturers have since come back online, he says, leading to improved supply.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she would send the article of impeachment against former President Donald Trump to the Senate on Monday (Wall Street Journal)

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) gave no details on how the trial will be conducted, and Democratic and Republican party leaders have yet to reach an agreement on the schedule. “It will be a full trial, it will be a fair trial,” he said Friday on the Senate floor.

Existing-home sales in 2020 reached their highest level since 2006, according to the National Association of Realtors. (NAR)

Total existing-home sales, completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, increased 0.7% from November to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 6.76 million in December. Sales in total rose year-over-year, up 22.2% from a year ago (5.53 million in December 2019).

The pandemic sent many Americans looking for more space. Sales of large homes are booming, but so are tiny ones. Listings for small spaces have increased 8.6% a year on average over the last decade (Wall Street Journal)

The high cost of housing is one factor. The median price paid for a home by a first-time buyer is around $266,500, according to the National Association of Realtors, which is out of reach for many younger owners. Tiny homes can be rented for about the price of a traditional apartment unit of the same size. For tiny homeowners, the units generate income or serve as guest homes. Owners often rent them out to college students or offer them to elderly family members, so they can stay nearby.

Final newsletter of the week! We discuss why we need more construction even with construction numbers up (HINT: It has something to so with all-time low inventories) and 2021 is off to a slow start compared to the ending of 2020.

Read the latest issue here | Subscribe to the newsletter here

Happy Friday!  We are 11 days away from Groundhog day & 23 days away from Valentine’s Day

☕️ President Biden will issue an executive order that will allow workers to draw unemployment benefits if they quit their jobs (New York Times), Senate Republicans pushed to delay the impeachment trial of former president Donald Trump for at least three weeks because he is struggling to recruit a legal team (Washington Post), The Biden administration broke with precedent by firing the National Labor Relations Board’s general counsel, Peter Robb, after refusing a request from Biden to step down (POLITICO)

📉 U.S. stock futures declined, signaling a muted end to a strong week on Wall Street.  Futures tied to the S&P 500 fell 0.6%, futures for the technology-focused Nasdaq-100 index lost 0.5% and contracts tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.8% (Wall Street Journal)