Your editorial of Aug. 5 asserts that “a full-fledged housing boom that could get a lot of other economic sectors moving is being stifled by high lumber prices.”

This is the standard line of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) intended to place blame for rising housing costs on lumber. The facts are that prices for domestically produced framing lumber and most other commodity wood products used in homebuilding are now depressed to levels not seen since 1992 and this has been the case throughout the building boom of recent years.

Another detail of note is that the total cost of all lumber used in the construction of a typical house constitutes less than 3 percent of its cost. You and the homebuilders need to find a new whipping boy.

John E. Anthony

Northeast Harbor