Thank you for the excellent response. I always suspected the soft and hardwood markets were more closely linked regarding price elasticity. The vast majority of hard wood products end up outfitting houses built of softwood. You can't build a house without cabinets and flooring which are primarily hardwood and mdf. But if I'm right about this I still have no explanation as to the lack of hardwood price increases. (Also, cause you seem to be into this type of stuff, all major residential construction projects in my area are at a halt. Homeowners were borrowing the maximum amount the bank would lend and when the framing package prices went up most couldn't cover it out of pocket. (For the average 3,000 sq.ft. house the framing package went from maybe $30,000 to $60,000. And I'm just sitting here thinking wtf, you have $150,000 of cars in your garage and you can't come up with $30,000 in spare change because you don't actually own anything. You merely pay property taxes on it while the (((bank))) holds the note)