(Reuters) - U.S. forest product firm Weyerhaeuser on Thursday beat estimates for first-quarter profit on increased demand for housing construction.

Tight supply of existing homes in the United States pushed buyers to opt for newly made houses, helping forest product firms like Weyerhaeuser.

The Seattle-based Weyerhaeuser's quarterly adjusted core profit from its real estate, energy & natural resources segment rose 5.6% to $94 million from a year ago, and was up 24.3% at $184 million from its wood products segment.

The company reported an adjusted profit of 16 cents per share for the quarter ended March. 31, compared with analysts' average estimates of 15 cents per share, according to LSEG data.

Weyerhaeuser owns or controls about 10.5 million acres of timberlands in the United States and manages additional timberlands under long-term licenses in Canada.

It expects higher sales volumes, slightly lower log costs, and moderately lower unit manufacturing costs in the second quarter for lumber.

The company reported quarterly revenue of $1.8 billion, a 4.5% fall from the previous year, missing estimates of $1.85 billion.