Why it matters, commodity
Softwood lumber
Sawn structural wood used for framing most single-family homes in North America.
- Depends on
- 0
- Depended on by
- 1
- Metrics
- 0
Neighbourhood: what depends on it (left), what it depends on (right)
- Candidate
- Hypothesized
- Mechanism supported
- Causally supported
- Established relation
Systems that would feel a shortage
Downstream: what depends on it
Residential construction requires input Softwood lumber2 evidenceMechanism supported
Residential construction depends on Softwood lumber.
Mechanism
Most new single-family homes in the United States are wood-framed, so lumber demand tracks starts. Steel framing and masonry substitute in some markets, which is why this is a market mechanism rather than a universal engineering requirement.
Evidence
- documentU.S. Census Bureau, Characteristics of New Housingcensus.govFraming material, foundation type and other characteristics of completed homes.checked 2026-09-07
- documentU.S. Census Bureau, New Residential Constructioncensus.govPermits, starts and completions.checked 2026-09-07
- Status
- mechanism_supported
- Reviewer confidence
- 0.90
- Stated strength
- 0.60
- Lag
- not stated
- Version
- curated_seed_v1
- Reviewed
- 2026-09-07
Confidence and strength are curated judgements recorded with the edge, not measured quantities.
Inputs it cannot do without
Upstream: what it depends on
No stored inputs for this entity.
Measured, from the catalog
Linked metrics
No catalog metric is linked to this entity yet.
Named on the edges that depend on it
Substitutes
No substitute is named for this entity on any stored edge.
Derived from curated edges
Bottleneck centrality
- Score
- 1.20
- Downstream entities
- 2
- Direct dependents
- 1
Sum over every entity downstream (within six hops) of the strongest path weight to it, where each edge weighs its stated strength divided by one plus its named substitutes. A graph statistic over curated edges, not an observation. Computed 2026-09-07 22:42 UTC.
Curated paths this entity is part of
Chains
Names that resolve to this node
Aliases
- dimensional lumber
- framing lumber
- timber
- wood products
slug lumber, updated 2026-09-07 22:42 UTC