[New York] The cooling housing market is sawing into lumber prices. The indexes have been in decline since about the fourth quarter of 2005, but the downturn has become steeper in the last couple of months. The demand side of the equation isn ‘ t expected to get much better anytime soon either. Goldman Sachs economist Jan Hatzius said last week the U.S. housing market appears poised to suffer during 2007 its first outright decline in prices in decades. Also, the housing slowdown ‘ s effects could be exaggerated for forest-products companies since the slowing will be more substantial among larger, higher-priced homes _ which use more building materials.

News notes are courtesy of Southern Forests Network News Notes
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