Prices typically rise after a natural disaster as demand spikes for building materials, but President Donald Trump's 20% import tariffs on imported Canadian softwood timber will drive those costs even higher. The price of lumber has jumped 30% nationwide since the beginning of the year.
"The experience of our builders and homeowners in and around such an event has almost always been that prices spike on essential building materials but in a very localized area," says David Logan, the National Association of Homebuilders' director of tax and trade policy analysis.