UPDATE 3-Louisiana-Pacific profit disappoints; shares fall

* Q2 EPS 17 cents vs Street view 19 cents

* Sales rise 67 percent to $447.1 million

* Says demand began to taper off significantly in May

* Shares down 9 percent (Adds Weyerhaeuser results; updates share fall)

By Adveith Nair

NEW YORK, July 30 (Reuters) - Building materials maker Louisiana-Pacific Corp (LPX.N) reported lower-than-expected second-quarter profit and said demand had dipped amid a tough housing market, sending its shares down 9 percent.

"Demand began to taper significantly in the second half of May and this weakness continued into June," Chief Executive Rick Frost said in a statement.

"Jobs, consumer confidence, inventory of vacant homes for sale and the overall state of the economy have had a downward pull on housing."

New U.S. home construction hit its lowest level in eight months in June, signaling the economy lost momentum in the second quarter.

And while the rate of vacancies for U.S. homes slipped slightly in the quarter, this was not enough to promise improvement in the hard-hit housing market.

"For housing, there is growing agreement that the timing and strength of the recovery will be determined by the size of the inventory of excess vacant homes and household formations enabled by job recovery," Frost said. "I believe we'll see an erratic path for the rest of 2010 and into next year."

Elsewhere, forest products maker Weyerhaeuser Co (WY.N), which reported quarterly results on Friday, also expressed concern about weakening housing demand. [ID:nN30166641]

For the second quarter, Louisiana-Pacific reported net income of $22.3 million, or 16 cents per share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $29.2 million, or 28 cents per share.

Income from continuing operations at the company, which makes a plywood substitute and other products used in homebuilding, was 17 cents per share, slightly below analysts' estimates of 19 cents.

Sales at the Nashville, Tennessee-based company rose 67 percent to $447.1 million, beating estimates of $399 million.

Louisiana-Pacific shares were down 9 percent at $7.32 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The shares have traded between $3.97 and $13.43 in the past 52 weeks. (Reporting by Adveith Nair; editing by Lisa Von Ahn, John Wallace and Andre Grenon)