Miami Herald: U.S. housing woes buzz saw Canadian lumber towns

[El Pinko]

http://www.miamiherald.com/business_monday/story/412384.html


U.S. housing woes buzz saw Canadian lumber towns
Posted on Mon, Feb. 11, 2008

BY ANTHONY FAIOLA
Washington Post Service
MACKENZIE, British Columbia --

For a time, the snow-dusted forests ringing this picturesque mill town might as well have been made of gold.
Eager U.S. construction companies scooped up Canadian lumber in record volume during the great American housing boom of the middle of the decade. As prices spiked, sawmills cashed in, spending millions to increase production. They upgraded factories and enticed laborers with salaries upward of $80,000 a year, adding third shifts to pump out wood for McMansions in Miami and instant subdivisions in Phoenix, 24 hours a day.

The lumber bubble brought to this sleepy town of 4,500 people about 600 miles north of Vancouver a rush of wealth, still easily visible in the freshly minted Ski-Doo snowmobiles and $60,000 pickup trucks, now idle in driveways.

''Everybody went out and bought new toys,'' said Mackenzie's no-nonsense mayor, Stephanie Killam. ``Nobody thought it would ever end. They were wrong.''

[Donnachaidh]

1. many Atlanta suburbs are built of Canadian Lumber

Evil half's job is essentially handling just that.

But his boss recently laid off 80 per cent of the workforce. Everyone is hurting in the lumber business.

[SoCalDem]

2. Sing it with me...

"Those were the days, my friend..we thought they'd never end"..:nopity: