Last year will go down in history as the year that the longest sustained housing boom in recent decades ended. At year's end, experts were busy debating whether or not it had bottomed out, but the repercussions for the forest products industry will befelt for years to come. Not that the homebuilding industry in America owes the forest products industry anything. At times when the rest of the economy was in the doldrums, Americans kept building and buying new homes at a pace that propped up vital sectors of the industry at critical times when other markets were in decline. Vast quantities of manufactured forest products like flooring, siding, structural lumber, cabinetry, furniture--you name it--poured into the construction economy, keeping loggersand sawmillers busy and largely profitable through some otherwise tough times.
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