Which state has the cheapest firewood?

There is no single cheapest state, because the price is set at the scale of a delivery radius rather than a state. As a rule the cheapest wood is in states with abundant timber, low population density and self cut permits on public land, which describes Idaho, Montana and much of the Mountain West. The dearest is in dense metro areas far from a woodlot, which is why coastal New England and the Southwest sit at the top.

Why is firewood more expensive in the Northeast?

Three things stack up. The heating season is long, so demand is real rather than recreational. The wood is dense hardwood, which costs more to cut and season but delivers more heat. And the population is concentrated in metros with long delivery runs from the nearest woodlot. Freight on two tons of wood is what turns those factors into a price.

Is firewood cheaper in rural areas?

Almost always, and by a wide margin. A cord weighs over two tons, so delivery distance dominates the price. Buying from a yard 10 miles away rather than 50 costs less regardless of what the wood itself is worth, which is why the same species can differ by $150 a cord within one state.

Do firewood prices change during the year?

Yes, and it is the largest saving most buyers can access. Demand peaks in December and January and collapses in April. Buying green wood in spring and stacking it until winter typically costs 30 to 40 percent less than buying seasoned wood in October, and by November it is the same product.

Do you publish actual firewood prices for each state?

No, and we will not. Firewood is quoted by phone, per delivery, adjusted for distance, species and what the yard cut that week. There is no published price list to record, so any site showing a firewood price per state to the dollar is presenting numbers it cannot support. What we publish is a range wide enough to be honest, plus the method to find your real local rate.

Firewood Prices by State and Region

Firewood costs roughly $200 to $450 for a full cord of seasoned hardwood delivered, depending on where you live. That is a wide band, and the width is the point: firewood has no national price, only hundreds of local ones.

What follows is a regional orientation, not a price list. Use it to judge whether a quote you have been given is plausible, then find your actual local rate with three phone calls.

Typical range by region

Region	Typical full cord, seasoned, delivered	What sets it
Northeast	$300 to $450	Dense hardwood, long season, metro delivery runs
Southwest	$250 to $400	Little local timber, freight dominates
Great Lakes and Upper Midwest	$250 to $375	Hardwood plentiful, quarantine rules keep it local
Mid Atlantic	$250 to $375	Hardwood, but metro distances push it up
Pacific Northwest	$225 to $350	Softwood, slow seasoning in a damp climate
Southeast	$200 to $325	Oak and hickory available, short heating season
South Central	$200 to $325	Post oak and mesquite, cooking wood props up demand
Mountain West	$200 to $325	Softwood staple, self cut permits cap the top end

Adjust from there. Kiln dried runs 30 to 60 percent above the band. Green runs 30 to 40 percent below it. Softwood sits at the bottom of any band it appears in, because it delivers less heat per cord.

Which states sit in which band

Region	States
Northeast	ME, NH, VT, MA, RI, CT, NY
Mid Atlantic	NJ, PA, DE, MD, VA, WV, DC
Southeast	NC, SC, GA, FL, TN, KY, AL, MS
Great Lakes and Upper Midwest	OH, MI, IN, IL, WI, MN, IA, MO, ND, SD, NE, KS
South Central	TX, OK, AR, LA
Mountain West	MT, ID, WY, CO, UT, NV
Southwest	AZ, NM
Pacific Northwest	WA, OR
Pacific	CA, AK, HI

California spans three of these bands on its own, from cheap softwood in the north to Southwest pricing in the south, which is a good illustration of why state level figures mislead in the first place.

Why the spread is this wide

A cord of green hardwood weighs between two and two and a half tons. Freight on two tons of anything is significant, and firewood is cheap per pound, so transport quickly costs more than the product itself.

That single fact explains most of the table. Prices rise with distance from the nearest woodlot, which is why a metro in a forested state can pay more than a rural town in a treeless one.

Three other factors move it:

Species. A cord of hickory holds roughly twice the heat of a cord of cottonwood. Regions where hardwood is the default charge more per cord and deliver more heat for it. Comparing a Northeast oak price to a Mountain West pine price without adjusting for that is comparing two different products. The firewood cost calculator does the adjustment.

Regulation. Most states restrict moving untreated firewood across county or state lines, to slow the spread of emerald ash borer, oak wilt and thousand cankers disease. Where those quarantines bite, the supply is genuinely local and cannot be undercut by cheaper wood trucked in.

Public land. Several western states sell personal use cutting permits for national forest land at a nominal fee. That puts a ceiling on what a commercial yard can charge nearby, and it is a large part of why the Mountain West sits at the bottom of the table.

Finding your real local rate

The regional band tells you the postcode. It does not tell you what the yard down the road charges. For that:

Ring three yards within your likely delivery radius.
Ask each for a full cord of seasoned mixed hardwood, delivered to your address, as a total rather than a rate.
Discard any quote that will not specify the species or the cut length.
The middle of the three is your local going rate.

If one quote is dramatically below the others, that is the one to ask more questions about. It is usually green wood sold as seasoned, a face cord quoted as a cord, or a delivery fee that appears at the end. The guide to what a cord of wood costs covers the five questions that separate a cheap cord from a small one.

City guides

We publish local context for individual cities: which burn day rules apply, what the transport restrictions are, how long wood takes to season in that climate, and which suppliers we have verified.

See the firewood directory by city for the full list.

Why we do not publish a price per state

Because there is nothing honest to build one from. Pellets almost have a national price, since they are a manufactured product sold in a standard 40 lb bag from published listings. Firewood is the opposite: quoted by phone, per delivery, in units that are not always defined, adjusted for what the yard cut that week.

A site that publishes “the average cord price in Ohio is $247” is not reporting a measurement. It is dressing up a guess with a decimal point. We would rather give you a range wide enough to be true, and the method to narrow it yourself.