Episode 2054
Woodpeckers, Tariffs, and Housing Woes: Eric G's Wild Update
Eric G dives into the current housing crisis, and let me tell you, it’s a doozy. With the Trump administration stepping in, we’re all left wondering what that even means for us homeowners. Is there actually a plan here or are we just watching a circus unfold? Eric breaks down the absurdity of the state and local regulations that are driving up housing costs. Urban growth boundaries? More like urban growth nightmares! Imagine owning a chunk of land you can’t build on just because it’s not on some arbitrary line drawn by the government. Classic. It’s a tug-of-war between skyrocketing land prices and the desperate need for affordable housing. Spoiler alert: it’s not looking good. Eric digs into the crazy fees associated with building, like $70,000 just to get a house on the market. Who knew permits could cost more than my first car?
Then we get into lumber prices, and wow, hold onto your hard hats. With tariffs on Canadian lumber, prices are on the rise and it’s making everything feel like a bad joke. Eric shares some wild stats about how framing lumber is up nearly 20% year-over-year. That’s right, folks, lumber is now a luxury item. But wait, there’s more! The prices of gypsum board are through the roof too—$20 a sheet! Seriously, do we have to start trading in gold now? Eric’s sarcastic take on the absurdities of the construction industry keeps it light as we navigate through these serious issues. He wraps it up with a call to action about the importance of trade education in schools because apparently, we’re not allowed to learn how to build things anymore. What a wild ride!
Takeaways:
- The Federal Government is stepping in on the housing emergency, but don't hold your breath waiting for miraculous solutions.
- Local zoning laws and urban growth boundaries are driving housing prices through the roof, making it almost a joke.
- Tariffs on Canadian lumber are raising costs, so good luck finding affordable wood for your next project.
- Eric shares his personal home improvement woes, like battling a persistent woodpecker—because who doesn't love a good DIY disaster story?
- The housing crisis is the worst it's been in decades, and Eric discusses why a single federal solution isn't likely to happen any time soon.
- Eric's deep dive into the absurdities of permit fees shows just how much red tape can screw up home building.
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Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Eric G.
- Around the House
- Fox Business
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Transcript
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Speaker B:The House with Eric G. Your go to source for everything home improvement.
Speaker B:Whether you're a DIY enthusiast or just looking to make your space shine, Eric.
Speaker A:G. Is here to guide you through.
Speaker B:The latest tips, tricks and trends.
Speaker B:So grab your toolbox, put on your thinking cap, and let's get to work right here on around the House with.
Speaker A:Eric G. Welcome to the Round the House show, the next generation of home improvement.
Speaker A:I'm Eric G. Thanks for joining me today.
Speaker A:This is our midweek special, that midweek update that we do every single Wednesday that fills up the stuff that didn't fit in the show last week and won't fit it into this next weekend.
Speaker A:And man, I tell you what, we've got a great one coming up this weekend that'll be a lot of fun.
Speaker A:But there's so much going on in the news out there today.
Speaker A:I wanted to cover a little bit about it and stuff that affects us homeowners, all of us in the construction industry, all of the people in the trades out there that tune into around the House each and every week.
Speaker A:So I saw over Labor Day weekend here, the Trump administration had weighed in a little bit on a national housing emergency.
Speaker A:What's that gonna mean to all of us?
Speaker A:That's the thing that you kind of look at and go, what can they do?
Speaker A:One of the biggest issues we have is many of the added costs that go into housing is done at the state or local level.
Speaker A:For instance, here in Oregon and Washington and many of these states out west where we are out here on the left coast, the problem we've got is our land prices are so high because of our urban growth boundaries, which means the state tells us where we can build and where we can't.
Speaker A:If I own 20 acres of farmland that hasn't been farmed in 50 years, that is zoned for residential.
Speaker A:If it's not on the urban growth boundary, I'm not putting a bunch of houses on it.
Speaker A:But across the street could be where the line is and that's a brand new development.
Speaker A:So it automatically makes our housing prices way higher because the land prices are supply and demand.
Speaker A:So that's an expensive thing.
Speaker A:They've been trying to reduce some of the costs here in Portland, I think they've got now some of the fees reduced.
Speaker A:It was, it would be that nice big house on a lot of in the city could cost you $70,000 in permit fees because you're paying for the road, you're paying for the sewer, you're paying for all these different fees that are associated with it.
Speaker A:You'd have a transit tax, you'd have all these little fees that came onto things, parks, all these things that came out of the building permit to do that.
Speaker A:So really there's a couple of things.
Speaker A:Lumber prices are up, but we've got all these tariffs on Canadian lumber right now.
Speaker A:So they could do something with that.
Speaker A:I was reading on, on, I think it was Fox Business that they did a story on this and they were saying that composite prices of framing lumber were up about 5.8% year over year where lumber futures were 19.1 higher than a year ago, even though they've been dropping down.
Speaker A:And then back in July I think it was the Commerce Department had announced it was going to more than double countervailing duties on Canadian softwood lumber imports.
Speaker A:So that's our framing lumber that was going to go from 6.74 to 14.63%.
Speaker A:So Canadian lumber also is subject to an anti dumping tariff of 20%.
Speaker A:So that means Canadian lumber is now 35.2% up from 14 for 14.4%.
Speaker A:So that's where that is.
Speaker A:Our lumber prices out of control?
Speaker A:No, but really they're higher, but they're not as bad as they used to be.
Speaker A:Would I like to see him come down?
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:Some of the stuff that's way out of control is like gypsum.
Speaker A:She rock.
Speaker A:It's almost 20 bucks a sheet in my area right now and that's coming out of Mexico.
Speaker A:So that could be something that they could deal with.
Speaker A:I guess the gypsum mines are down in Mexico or a lot of them are.
Speaker A:So that's where that is right there.
Speaker A:So is there a lot they can do other than lowering interest rates and getting housing prices down is going to be a bigger play.
Speaker A:That's not going to be something they can just wave a magic wand and do that because we've got our biggest affordable housing crisis in the US in 40 or 50 years.
Speaker A:And so that's going to be an interesting one to see.
Speaker A:Really it's going to have to be done locally unless there's something they can do nationally with some standardizing of building permits or standardizing of building code.
Speaker A:Some of the energy code of course costs us extra money, what we see out there.
Speaker A:So we'll see what they can do.
Speaker A:Their hands are tied because a lot of it's not federal as far as that goes.
Speaker A:And that's going to be interesting to see how that plays out.
Speaker A:There's a lot of different things at the local level and really that's where the states are going to have to get involved to fix that.
Speaker A:Some states have got much more affordable housing because they're managing it correctly and the demand isn't there.
Speaker A:So that pushes it up here.
Speaker A:I can buy a, you know, a half acre lot for $700,000 where, you know, you can take a zero off of that in many other places in the country.
Speaker A:And a lot of that's just because of that urban growth boundary.
Speaker A:So something to consider there.
Speaker A:Hey, I wanted to give you guys an update on what I've got going on.
Speaker A:I've been so busy trying to get my house done and I know it's like your projects, just when you think it's going to be done, it gets bigger.
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:I've got problems like a woodpecker that I have painted this section of the house like four times now.
Speaker A:And we'll see what happens when I get up on the ladder today.
Speaker A:But woodpecker comes up and drills another golf ball size hole in my sighting.
Speaker A:And it's come on.
Speaker A:I just fixed that yesterday, put a new board up, get it patched up, get it prime painted up there, caulked in brand new hole back there again.
Speaker A:And it's driving me insane.
Speaker A:And people go, oh, there must be water intrusion.
Speaker A:No, because I've heard that thing sitting up there on a metal piece of flashing doing it there too.
Speaker A:I think it's just a dumb woodpecker.
Speaker A:So I've been fighting that.
Speaker A:And of course I've got a painting crew in doing some texture stuff and really blending in some textures in there from previous work.
Speaker A:There was an area in my house that I really had a hard time getting to that I didn't get finished up and textured.
Speaker A:And that project grew a little bit from just doing one section to all the ceilings on the first floor of the house to get them dialed in.
Speaker A:And I had an interesting one.
Speaker A:I had a primer failure where I had and it might have been some user error as well because I was in a little bit of a hurry.
Speaker A:I might have put the primer on when the drywall was still a little damp from scraping it because I had been wetting it and I had been scraping it.
Speaker A:And I think I had a combination of maybe some damp drywall as well as that.
Speaker A:So we started doing some work on it.
Speaker A:We noticed the primer coming off of the separating off and peeling off the drywall, which was really weird.
Speaker A:So my guess is that I had some damp areas and so we just decided to Go ahead and start over on the texture on the first floor and get it all consistent.
Speaker A:And we've done it right.
Speaker A:It's one of the things when you're getting ready to sell your house.
Speaker A:It's so easy to take those shortcuts.
Speaker A:And really I've been working on those things.
Speaker A:It's just takes forever.
Speaker A:I've got a guy doing it and I'd much rather have him up on the ladder.
Speaker A:I don't know about you.
Speaker A:There's two things I hate doing is drywall and insulation.
Speaker A:Both of those are never fun.
Speaker A:It just takes a ton of time and it just makes such a heck of a mess.
Speaker A:But getting that close, I'm gonna be shooting today some stuff for some upcoming product videos that I can't wait to try.
Speaker A:And I gotta be doing that today.
Speaker A:So it's gonna be a lot of fun and I can't wait to do that.
Speaker A:That's gonna be a great time.
Speaker A:Getting some of this new products down and playing around with them as well.
Speaker A:That as well as packing up my shop.
Speaker A:So I'm gonna be in my temporary studios here until we get to the next house and got that planning on that, but we'll be here probably over the holidays.
Speaker A:Gonna take a look and see what happens and see what the next steps are.
Speaker A:That's the fun part.
Speaker A:We got some great stuff coming up.
Speaker A:Working on some details for around the House Northwest television show that will be coming out soon.
Speaker A:Can't wait to explore that with you as well.
Speaker A:We've got some great announcements coming up that that is just such a huge project.
Speaker A:And quite frankly, guys like you, I get so buried on projects like this.
Speaker A:I really want to be able to get my focus on that.
Speaker A:So I'm really trying to get this.
Speaker A:If you're trying to get a house.
Speaker A:Looking at a house to buy in the Lake Oswego, Oregon area, My house should be coming on the market within about a week.
Speaker A:So that's the plan.
Speaker A:I'm just getting some finishing touches on it so we can get this thing looking its best, get it taken a look at.
Speaker A:And a lot of value here in this place with all the stuff I've done to it over the years that you've watched on social media, on the TV show Around the House Northwest, and of course on the YouTube channel.
Speaker A:All right, everybody, I'm gonna let you go.
Speaker A:I've got a lot to get done today.
Speaker A:Wanted to just give you an update on what's going on there with the.
Speaker A:With the housing stuff.
Speaker A:We're gonna have to get kids back into the classroom here to make sure that we can get some stuff knocked out.
Speaker A:Because I tell you what, this is one of those things that we're gonna have to get some kids trained up for the trades because labor prices are not gonna be helping us as well.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So when you're in the schools taking a look at and they don't have any of the trade stuff, if they don't have any wood shops, if you're a parent out there, bring those things up to your school district.
Speaker A:Why did they take those wood shops and welding classes and everything out of the schools?
Speaker A:And what's it going to take to put them back in?
Speaker A:I'm Eric G. Thanks for tuning into around the House.
Speaker A:We'll see you soon.
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Speaker B:Just head to aroundthehouse online.com for all the links.
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Speaker B:We will see you next time.
