I am in the wholesale lumber industry, 30+ years. The crazy high prices, all time record highs on most items, are being driven by the perfect storm, of low interest rates allowing new house buyers into the market, solid demand for homes out of inner cites, Remodel and repair business as people where stuck at home and nothing to do, supply side disruptions, including but not limited to, COVID keeping workers out of mills, transportations spikes including ocean freights going thru the roof on imports, containers that where moving from China and other SE Asia ports jumping from $2400 per container to $7000 and higher, increases in costs of glues etc in plywood, MDF and particle board manufacturing. And the winter weather this past week has shut down logging in most of the south.
Mills today really don't need many people to run, but several weeks ago I was told by a sales guy for an OSB mill that the plant lost 2 weeks production due to all of the guys trained on the finishing end of the mill testing positive for COVID. All 5 of them.
My company had the best sales year in the 63 years it has been in business last year. The prices are not going to crash down like other cycles. They will come down but not to lows of the past.