Lumber prices are falling back to Earth.

Futures for July delivery ended Tuesday at $1,009.90 per thousand board feet, down 41% from the record of $1,711.20 reached in early May. Futures have declined 14 of the past 16 trading days.

Cash lumber prices are also crashing. Pricing service Random Lengths said Friday that its framing composite index, which tracks on-the-spot sales, dropped $122 to $1,324, its biggest ever weekly decline. The pullback came just six weeks after the index rose $124 during the first week of May, its most on record. Random Lengths described a chaotic rout in which sawmill managers struggled to provide customers with price quotes. It said late Tuesday that its index had dropped another $114, to $1,210.

Economists and investors have wondered if sky-high prices for wood products would doom a Solid Housing Market and force Builders to raised home prices. Many stopped selling houses before the studs were installed, lest they misjudge costs and sell too cheaply. Lumber became central to where our economy was heading.

Either way, Markets are still wondering whether a period of runaway inflation is a foot or if recent high prices were temporary shocks that would ease as the economy moved further from the COVID lockdown.