Lumber Price Index
Where softwood lumber prices sit right now, straight from the federal index the industry uses. Free to cite.
Year over year
+15.0%
Softwood lumber, July 2026 against the same month a year earlier
Since the 2024 average
+18.1%
Index at 300.6, against 254.4 for 2024
BLS series WPU0811, data through July 2026. Page last updated September 4, 2026.
Softwood lumber, 2019 to 2026
The spike in the middle is the 2021 shortage, when mills cut output early in the pandemic and demand went the other way. Prices came most of the way back down, then settled higher than they started.
Softwood lumber index by year
The same BLS series as the chart, one row per year, newest first. Values are index points, not dollars.
| Year | Index (yearly avg.) | Change vs prior year |
|---|---|---|
| 2026(partial year: July value) | 300.6 | +15.0% |
| 2025 | 264.9 | +4.1% |
| 2024 | 254.4 | -3.8% |
| 2023 | 264.4 | -31.3% |
| 2022 | 384.9 | -3.2% |
| 2021 | 397.7 | +41.9% |
| 2020 | 280.3 | +30.1% |
| 2019 | 215.4 | n/a |
Full years show the average of the twelve monthly values, compared with the prior year's average. The current year is not finished, so it shows the latest month and compares it with the same month a year earlier. The CSV has every monthly value from January 2019 to July 2026, as published.
Why there is no dollar figure here
Our concrete and crushed stone pages carry a price per cubic yard and per ton, because NRMCA and USGS publish national averages we can anchor to. Framing lumber has no free equivalent. The composite price the trade quotes is proprietary, and the figures floating around on contractor sites are copies of copies with no method attached.
So this page tracks the index itself. It answers the question people have, which is whether lumber is up or down and by how much, without putting a dollar number on the page that we cannot stand behind.
The index is BLS series WPU0811 (BLS Producer Price Index by Commodity: Lumber and Wood Products: Softwood Lumber), pulled monthly through the free FRED API from the St. Louis Fed. Percentages compare the latest month against the same month a year earlier, and against the 2024 annual average. Nothing is smoothed and nothing is estimated.
One caveat worth stating: a producer price index measures what manufacturers charge, not what you pay at the counter. Retail markup, freight, and local supply all sit on top and move on their own schedule. Use this to see which way the market is going, not to predict a quote.
Citing this page
Cite these figures anywhere. A link back to this page is all we ask.
CalcRafter Lumber Price Index. Softwood lumber PPI: 300.6 (July 2026), +15.0% year over year. Retrieved from https://calcrafter.com/lumber-price-index/