NOR legislation has expanded to 30 states
thanks to Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty's signature on a bill May 16 that makes his state the latest to jump on the bandwagon.

Notice & Opportunity to Repair (NOR) legislation presents a commonsense way to resolve construction defect complaints. In Minnesota's case, the law requires a home owner to notify a builder of an alleged defect, then gives the builder 30 days to inspect the property and offer to make repairs or some other settlement prior to any litigation being filed. Congratulations to the Builders Association of Minnesota, which worked long and hard with home owners and the legal community to make this solution a reality. The state follows Wisconsin and Oklahoma in enacting NOR legislation during the current legislative session. Virginia also recently adopted legislation that strengthens its Opportunity to Repair statute by including condos and condo conversions in the process. Read more about this story in the latest editions of NBN Online and State & Local Reporter, or contact Gerry Keegan (x8326) at NAHB. For specifics about Minnesota's NOR law, contact Lisa Frenette at the BA of Minnesota, at 651-646-7959.

NOR laws help return fairness, predictability and speed to the dispute resolution process, thereby saving NAHB members time and money while helping to address the escalating costs of unnecessary lawsuits and general liability insurance.

Talk about a successful National Membership Day...
Preliminary results of last month's big event indicate the highest level of participation ever recorded — a total of 452 state and local HBAs called in!  Not only that, but 10 states boasted 100% participation by their locals. Those states included Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Washington, Illinois, Mississippi, Nevada, North Dakota, Delaware and Maine. New-member recruitment reported on National Membership Day hit a preliminary total of 9,550 — a truly remarkable accomplishment. Special congratulations goes to the local and state winners who outperformed all others in terms of new member recruitment:

Top 10 Locals*                                          
Greater Atlanta HBA - 250 new members
HBA of Spokane (WA) - 161
HBA of Western Massachusetts - 160
HBA of Raleigh & Wake County (NC) - 160
HBA of Metro Portland (OR) - 150
MBA of King & Snohomish Counties (WA) - 150
Rochester HBA (NY) - 145
BA of Greater San Antonio (TX) - 145
HBA of Bucks & Montgomery Counties (PA) - 145
HBA of Greater Columbia (SC) - 135 

Top 10 States*
Florida - 1,307
Oregon - 856
North Carolina - 606
Washington - 606
New York - 523
Texas - 513
Pennsylvania - 480
Georgia - 388
Michigan - 314
Massachusetts - 258

* Final competition results will be released once May membership processing is completed. [return to top]

Immigration reform that makes good sense
for the building industry was passed by the Senate on May 25. The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act aims to protect and secure our borders, establish a guest worker program that will keep the economy moving forward, help employers verify the legal status of their employees and create a legal path for foreign workers to apply for citizenship. Sponsored by Senators Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Mel Martinez (R-FL), the legislation would create a tiered system for the nation's illegal immigrants, dividing them into three categories:

1) those who have lived in the U.S. for at least five years,
2) those who have lived here for two to five years, and
3) those who have lived here less than two years.

Illegals in the first group would be offered eventual legal residency without having to leave the country after passing national security and criminal background checks, paying a fine and proving they have paid all federal and state taxes. Those in the second group would have to travel to a U.S. border crossing and apply for a temporary work visa. They would have to meet all requirements for temporary workers, and could apply for permanent residency and citizenship after a certain time. Those in the third group would have to return to their native country and apply for a temporary work visa from there, with no guarantee of acceptance. NAHB supports this fair approach as a way to ensure an appropriate labor supply at a time when more than 20% of the residential construction workforce is made up of foreign-born employees. The next step will be to ensure that critical parts of the Senate bill are included in final legislation hammered out between the House and Senate. Read more about this in NBN Online, or contact Jenna Hamilton at x8407.

Click here for a a brief summary explaining the benefits of NAHB's efforts on immigration reform to our members.

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OFHEO's latest report on home prices
reveals that the cost of homeownership continued to rise in this year's first quarter, though not quite as fast as in previous quarters. According to the government's Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), U.S. home prices were 12.54% higher in 2006's first quarter than they were in the same period one year ago. Appreciation from year-end 2005 to the end of March 2006 was pegged at 2.03%. OFHEO noted that the latest data indicate stronger house-price growth than had been expected, but that the pace of price gains does seem to be moderating in some parts of the country – particularly where prices had been rising fastest. 

Arizona stood out in OFHEO's report for its consistently strong rate of home price appreciation, which is higher than that of any other state. Yet, quarterly appreciation there dipped from about 7.4% to 3.8%, while four-quarter appreciation dropped from about 35.5% to 32.8%. Meanwhile, Florida also stands out for its appreciation rates – fully half of the 20 metropolitan statistical areas with the largest percentage house-price gains in the past year were in that state.

Read more in OFHEO's press release, or for help responding to media inquiries regarding the government numbers, contact Paul Lopez (x8409) in NAHB Public Affairs.  [return to top]

Eminent domain legislation is all the rage
across states nationwide, a predictable outcome of the U.S. Supreme Court's controversial Kelo decision last June. That decision upheld a jurisdiction's ability to take non-blighted property from one private owner to allow another private owner to develop a project with an entirely different use for purposes of economic development. In all, 40 state legislatures have considered legislation restricting the use of eminent domain by state and local governments, and five states have enacted related laws. Accordingly, NAHB has developed a new resource designed to help our state and local HBAs that may be dealing with eminent domain legislation in their own backyards. The Eminent Domain Legislative Strategy Toolkit is now available online. It's divided into three parts that provide a) legislative language options that can be used to help revise eminent domain statutes; b) state-by-state breakdowns of related statutes, court cases and constitutional language; and c) NAHB's "Preserving Private Property Rights" resolution. Contact Gerry Keegan, x8326, or see our eminent domain section on NAHB's Web site for more.   [return to top]

New-home sales rose in April
according to a somewhat suprising government report on May 24. According to NAHB Chief Economist Dave Seiders, the nearly 5% gain, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of about 1.2 million units, was at least partly enabled by the government's substantial downward revisions to sales reported in the first quarter of this year. Those revisions left the sales pace well below what it was in the same quarter last year. "We continue to believe that the housing market is cooling down in an orderly fashion from the record pace last year, largely because of a pullback by investors/speculators. NAHB's current forecast shows about a 13% decline in new-home sales for 2006 as a whole," Seiders said. Please see NAHB's press release or the official government report online. [return to top]

June is National Homeownership Month,
and NAHB has lots of materials to help you and your HBA celebrate. Our online kit contains everything from radio and print ads you can run in your local newspapers, to articles and op-eds that can be sent in with your HBA president's byline, and many other resources to help promote this great time of year. Just go to www.nahb.org/homeownershipmonth to see all that we have to offer. Contact: Niki Clark, x8061, for more information.

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