Mid-September: it was a good time for lumber prices, while it lasted. After levels earlier this year hitting $1670.50 per thousand board feet—high enough to choke the oxygen out of many building plans—they finally started to drop and hit $454.40 on September 15 on the spot market.

But on the same day, the futures market was $595.90. In this case, foresight was 20-20. The spot market started Friday, October 1 at $625 while futures were at $627.50. A draw—and maybe for the next year close to the new normal according to Bryan Shaffer, principal and managing director at George Smith Partners.

"I think the $500 to $600 range is going to be more the new normal for at least the next 12 months," Shaffer tells GlobeSt.com. "Nothing's normalized yet. And you have the inflation and labor issues cropping into pricing of everything. It's very hard to get labor today so it's made it harder for all the producers to get goods out."