Investors are buying up vast tracts of timberland across U.S. in one of market's longest-term bets — SkimNews
Get the Finance newsletter
Daily finance — markets, central banks, M&A, the prints that move money. Free.
- Bank of America reported institutions are buying roughly one million acres of U.S. timberland per year in a three-year streak it expects to continue, with timber managers acquiring 55% of all acres that changed hands in 2025 against just 15% sellers.
- NCREIF's Timberland Property Index posted a 0.95% total return in Q2 2026 (0.34% income, 0.61% appreciation), while South Carolina Forestry Commission data show statewide pine pulpwood stumpage prices fell 33% year-over-year to $3.79/ton, though hardwood sawtimber prices climbed 40% to $22.52/ton.
- Pat Dorn, owner of 2,500 acres in South Carolina's upstate and a former chairman of the South Carolina Forestry Association, called timber a "very low return investment" and said supply currently beats demand, advising buyers to scout parcels near growing metros and hold for land appreciation rather than timber income.
- Bank of America Private Bank's Ken Shepard framed timberland as a "strategic, long-term investment" backed by expansion of the U.S. South timber industry and rising demand for wood pellets in bioenergy, while warning it cannot be tactically traded.
- Michael Martin, a western New York timber owner, said direct ownership carries extensive risks — wildfire, pests, disease, trespassers, illiquidity, and management costs — and that partial harvests every ten years have "barely" covered his property taxes.
- iShares Global Timber & Forestry ETF (WOOD) holds roughly $260 million while the Invesco MSCI Global Timber ETF (CUT) holds roughly $30 million, but Nadeem Kassam of Marnoa Private Wealth Counsel noted neither ETF owns trees — they hold publicly traded timber, forest products, and housing-value-chain companies.
Why it matters: The split between institutional buyers betting on a multi-decade housing recovery and private owners like Dorn and Martin barely covering property taxes shows how the same asset class looks radically different across time horizons — a 10-year partial harvest cycle returns little to individuals, while pension funds playing the 25-year sawtimber cycle can absorb today's flat pricing for future lumber upside tied to housing demand.
Ask SkimNews
