With housing affordability having reached crisis levels nationally, America’s home builders are stepping in with a formula they believe will provide real solutions.
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) today unveiled a 10-point plan to address the nation’s estimated 1.5 million shortage in housing units, by removing barriers that hinder new home construction.
“The lack of homes is the primary cause of growing housing affordability challenges,” NAHB Chairman Carl Harris, a custom home builder from Wichita, Kan., said in the announcement. “Any policy that seeks to improve affordability without addressing the need to increase the supply of single-family and multifamily for-sale and for-rent housing is doomed to fail.”
The trade association has called for federal, state and local governments to eliminate excessive regulations and promote careers in the skilled trades through job placement, training and expanded work visa programs to meet the demand for labor. Overturning local zoning laws that make it more difficult and costly to build will allow developers more flexibility, according to the NAHB, which is also calling for deadlines for the government to approve or deny building permits.
With shelter inflation, or the cost of rent and homeownership, now above 5%, home builders say fixing supply chains that tie up building materials and inflate costs is necessary to ease price spikes. They suggest ending tariffs on Canadian lumber shipments and increasing the domestic supply of timber from federally owned lands in an environmentally responsible manner.
NAHB also supports bipartisan legislative proposals to expand tax credit programs for middle-income households, to help teachers, health care professionals and members of law enforcement attain affordable housing.
In its 10-point plan the organization goes on to urge the adoption of “reasonable” and “cost-effective” building codes; reducing upfront taxes associated with home construction; expanding developers’ financing options, and updating employment policies it says de-incentivize housing production.
“The nation’s home builders are committed to doing their part to boost housing production to meet the needs of a growing population, make homeownership and renting more affordable, and elevate housing as a national priority. But we cannot do it alone,” the announcement stated. “By implementing these practical solutions and reaffirming their commitment to housing, policymakers at all levels of government can help fulfill the promise of the Housing Act of 1949, which set a goal of a decent home and a suitable living environment for every American family.
