Alabama Timber Prices Q4 2025
Alabama timber prices closed out 2025 under significant downward pressure. Pine sawtimber stumpage dropped roughly 19% year-over-year statewide (among the steepest declines anywhere in the South) while pine pulpwood continued a multi-year slide driven by pulp mill closures across the region. Hardwood sawtimber was the lone bright spot, holding near record levels thanks to persistent export demand and domestic interest in high-quality hardwood. For landowners and foresters trying to make sense of where prices stand heading into 2026, here’s a clear-eyed look at the numbers and the forces behind them.
WARNING: There Are No Second Chances
If you are reading this and plan to sell your timber (harvest your timber), bear in mind that you only have one shot. Once those trees are cut, you may not be able to harvest again in your lifetime. It is imperative you get it right the first time. That means getting the most money possible without your land and forest being permanently ruined by ruts, tree damage, and mud. That’s why I wrote How to Sell Your Timber Without Destroying Your Land, a comprehensive guide that walks landowners through every step of the process, regardless of whether you hire a forester or sell to loggers directly. It covers everything from deciding whether to harvest or keep growing and finding timber buyers to optimizing timber taxes so the IRS doesn’t take half. If you want to have a timber harvest you don’t regret later, check it out.
Q4 2025 Alabama Stumpage Prices
The table below reflects estimated Alabama stumpage price ranges (the price of standing timber) for Q4 2025. Figures vary slightly by region, but these figures are consistent with what foresters and timber buyers were reporting across the state during the quarter.
| Species / Product | Low ($/ton) | High ($/ton) | Trend vs. Q4 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pine Sawtimber | $17 | $21 | ▼ ~19% |
| Pine Chip-n-Saw | $15 | $17 | → Flat |
| Pine Pulpwood | $6 | $8 | ▼ Moderate |
| Hardwood Sawtimber | $30 | $34 | → Stable |
| Hardwood Pulpwood | $7 | $8 | → Stable |
All prices are stumpage (standing timber). Delivered prices will be higher by approximately $20–$25/ton depending on haul distance and contractor availability.
Alabama was grouped alongside Tennessee and South Carolina as having the lowest pine sawtimber stumpage prices in the South during Q4. The south-wide pine sawtimber average from TMS came in at $23.23/ton — itself down 6% year-over-year and sitting 10% below the 2022 peak. Alabama’s discount to that average reflects both geographic distance from major coastal mills and the sheer weight of inventory pressing on the local market.
How to Estimate What Your Timber Is Worth
These Alabama timber prices give you the market rates per unit of timber in your area, but they’re not particularly useful on their own—you need to know how much wood you actually have standing on your land.
The most accurate way to determine your timber volume is to hire a professional forester to conduct a timber cruise, which involves systematically measuring sample plots across your property. This can cost $1,000 or more depending on your acreage and timber complexity.
For a quicker, DIY estimate, you can use SilviCultural—forestry mapping software designed for small woodland owners. It includes an amateur-friendly cruise system that walks you through measuring your timber and calculating volumes by species and product class.
Once you have volume estimates (in MBF, cords, tons, etc.), you can multiply them by the stumpage prices above to get a rough sense of your timber’s market value. For example:
- 50 MBF of pine sawlogs × $400/MBF = $20,000
- 100 cords of mixed hardwood pulpwood × $15/cord = $1,500
Keep in mind: Actual timber prices in Alabama vary based on access, timber quality, market timing, and logger availability. These calculations give you a ballpark figure—always consult with a forester before making harvest decisions.
Market Update
Housing Remains the Root Problem
The timber market’s struggles in 2025 start and end with housing. Full-year housing starts totaled approximately 1.36 million units, essentially flat versus 2024, while single-family starts — the segment that drives the most framing lumber demand — fell roughly 7% to 943,000 units. Over 70% of U.S. softwood lumber flows into residential construction, which means weak starts translate directly into weak mill margins, which translate directly into weak stumpage prices.
The Federal Reserve cut rates three times during 2025, bringing the federal funds rate to 3.5%–3.75% by year-end and pulling 30-year mortgage rates down toward 6%. That’s a meaningful improvement from above 7% at the start of the year. But it hasn’t been enough to unlock the housing market in any significant way. Affordability remains near historic lows — a median-priced U.S. home sits around $460,000, and close to 100 million households can’t qualify for that purchase at current rates. Fed Chair Powell acknowledged in December 2025 that housing would continue to “be a problem” even with easing monetary policy.
Pine Sawtimber and the Oversupply Problem
The pine price decline isn’t just cyclical — it has a structural component that Alabama landowners need to understand. Alabama’s loblolly pine growing stock has increased 37.5% since 2002. More trees, more competition for mill capacity, and more leverage for buyers when housing demand softens. Southern Yellow Pine dimension lumber was trading around just $365/MBF in mid-November 2025, near break-even for many mills. Sawmill utilization across the South had fallen to approximately 64% of capacity. Mills running at those levels have no incentive — and often no margin — to bid up stumpage.
Hardwood Sawtimber Is the Exception
While pine markets struggled, hardwood sawtimber held its ground. South-wide, TimberMart-South reported hardwood sawtimber averaging $33.55/ton in Q4 — stable year-over-year and only slightly below the record $35/ton reached in Q4 2024. The driver is a mix of strong export demand, continued domestic interest in flooring and millwork, and premium white oak pricing tied to bourbon barrel demand. Quality hardwood sawlogs, particularly white oak, were trading at or above the high end of the range listed above throughout the quarter.
Tariffs: Policy That Complicates More Than It Helps
The trade policy environment shifted significantly heading into Q4. On September 29, 2025, the Trump administration signed a Section 232 proclamation imposing a 10% global tariff on all softwood timber and lumber imports, effective October 14. Combined with existing antidumping and countervailing duties, Canadian softwood now faces a combined tariff burden exceeding 45%. In theory, shutting out Canadian competition should benefit domestic producers. In practice, the near-term effect has been muted at best. U.S. mills were already running well below capacity — there’s no shortage of domestic supply. And to the extent these tariffs raise home-building costs (estimates range from $5,000 to $10,000 per home), they further suppress the housing starts that would otherwise drive stumpage demand. It’s a circular problem.
Mill Activity in Alabama: Gains and Losses
Alabama’s mill landscape saw meaningful churn in the second half of 2025. On the loss side, IndusTREE curtailed production at its Alexander City sawmill, and Southern Parallel Forest Products permanently closed its Albertville facility, laying off over 60 workers. On the investment side, Two Rivers Lumber’s new $115 million SYP sawmill in Coosa County came online in mid-2025, and Canfor Southern Pine’s $210 million replacement facility near Mobile — capable of producing 250 million board feet annually — ramped up operations. Georgia-Pacific’s $800 million expansion at Perdue Hill also continued progress. New mill capacity in South Alabama has helped support local pulpwood prices, partially insulating that part of the state from the steeper fiber price declines seen elsewhere in the South.
The Enviva wood pellet plant in Epes, with annual capacity of 1.1 million tons, began operations in 2025 and has added a new outlet for pulpwood in west Alabama — a meaningful development given how hard pulpwood markets have been hit by paper mill closures across the region.
Exports: A Modest Tailwind
Southern Yellow Pine exports have been a quiet bright spot. Full-year 2024 exports totaled 565.7 million board feet, up 11% over 2023, led by Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and growing demand across Southeast Asia. China remains a complicated market — exports there fell 44.5% in 2024 — but China lifted its ban on U.S. log imports in November 2025, which could open a new avenue for Alabama log exporters, particularly for high-quality pine and hardwood. Export volumes don’t move the stumpage needle dramatically on their own, but at the margins they matter, especially for operators near Alabama’s Gulf Coast ports.
What to Watch in 2026
A meaningful recovery in Alabama timber prices depends primarily on housing starts pushing convincingly above 1.4–1.5 million units annually. Most forecasters don’t expect that until 2027 at the earliest, assuming mortgage rates continue to ease. In the near term, landowners should pay close attention to local mill proximity — being within reasonable haul distance of new facilities like Two Rivers (Coosa County) or Canfor (Mobile) can mean $4–$7/ton better pricing than statewide averages suggest. For the most current and precise local pricing, a TimberMart-South subscription or a consultation with an Alabama Registered Forester remains the most reliable investment before making a harvest decision.
