| July 9, 2007 |
By Brian Catalde
NAHB President and
Jerry Howard
NAHB Executive VP and CEO |
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The Senate failed to keep immigration reform legislation alive
at the end of June, effectively ending consideration of the bill for the forseeable future.
 Despite this disappointing outcome, NAHB urged lawmakers not to abandon efforts to overhaul the nation's immigration laws. We emphasized that the nation's home builders strongly support comprehensive immigration reform that would protect our borders; provide a process by which immigrants can legally enter the country to work to meet the labor demands of a growing economy; and create an enforcement system that is fair, efficient and workable for all U.S. employers.
The bill was shelved indefinitely when lawmakers were unable to muster the 60 votes necessary to cut off debate and proceed to a final vote. Prior to this decisive vote, senators were in the process of debating 27 amendments to the bill. NAHB successfully pushed for the introduction of an amendment to clarify areas of critical concern to home builders, including enforcement and verification provisions. Offered by Sens. Charles Grassley (R-IA), Max Baucus (D-MT) and Barack Obama (D-IL), the bipartisan amendment would have enabled small business owners to play a constructive role in the enforcement of new laws. Ultimately, senators never got a chance to vote on the Grassley-Baucus-Obama amendment because the Senate failed to move forward with the bill. Contact: Jenna Hamilton (x8407).
NAHB Member Benefit: Highlighting the importance of this issue to the housing community, NAHB wrote letters to all 100 senators, arranged for builders to visit scores of Senate offices and, through BuilderLink, mobilized the association's national grassroots members. In addition, on June 26, NAHB ran a full-page advertisement in USA Today stating the association's position. In an open letter, NAHB urged all Americans to call their U.S. Senators and ask them to support the bipartisan Grassley-Baucus-Obama amendment. We ran a similar open letter to the U.S. Senate on the same day in the Hill publication Roll Call, urging senators' support for the amendment.
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NAHB has won a major victory in the U.S. Supreme Court!
 NAHB v. Defenders of Wildlife is NAHB's first case as a named party before the U.S. Supreme Court. It all began in 2003, when NAHB intervened in a case brought by environmentalists to stop the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from delegating Clean Water Act permitting to the state of Arizona. This type of delegation of a federal permit program to the states is not new – it streamlines the permit process and avoids lengthy delays while, at the same time, ensuring that both state and federal environmental protections are taken into account. In this instance, the Defenders of Wildlife argued that the EPA could not delegate permitting programs without undergoing endangered species consultation with the Fish & Wildlife Service. Their lawsuit had the potential of putting NAHB members through months of unnecessary consultations and red tape with a dollar cost that would have been astronomical.
Defenders of Wildlife won in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. That court effectively imposed an endangered species consultation obligation for every instance that one of our Arizona members needed a stormwater discharge permit. NAHB, along with the HBAs of Central and Southern Arizona, asked the Supreme Court to review the case. Because NAHB was an intervener in the lawsuit, we needed to persuade the EPA and the Department of Justice to also petition the Supreme Court to hear our case. Convincing the Supreme Court to take a case is no easy task – the Court accepts less than 1% of the petitions it receives each year, and the odds are roughly 1 in 2,000. When our case was accepted, it marked the first time in history that NAHB would appear before the Supreme Court in one of our own cases.
All of our efforts paid off when the highest court in the land reversed the Ninth Circuit and decided that EPA did not have to engage in an ESA consultation in transferring the CWA program to Arizona. The bottom line is that we won on all counts. This is a tremendous victory for NAHB, our associations in Arizona, and members nationwide. For more info, read our press release or contact Duane Desiderio at x8146.
NAHB Member Benefit: The costs associated with consultations, which are required under the Endangered Species Act, would have been prohibitive, and have been estimated at between 5 and 18 months and $1.7 million and $2.7 million for a single project. Read NBN Online for details.
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Home builders celebrated the successful comeback of the Bald Eagle
 with the removal of this majestic bird from the Endangered Species list at the end of June. The recovery is due to countless individual actions taken to protect and restore eagles and their habitat. Home builders have played an instrumental role in helping the population of this species grow, creating hundreds of scientifically rigorous Habitat Conservation Plans under the Endangered Species Act, leaving undeveloped buffers around nesting sites, minimizing harm to species and mitigating the effects of construction, all while continuing to provide needed housing for Americans. Of course, the Bald Eagle will continue to be protected under the Bald and Golden Eagle Act as well as state conservation laws that watch over our national symbol. Going forward, NAHB will continue to work closely with the Fish and Wildlife Service to ensure clarity and consistency in the federal rule and its application so that both builders and regulators understand how it works and how to enforce it – and bald eagles can continue to thrive. Contact: Calli Schmidt, (x8132).
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New-home sales slipped 1.6% in May,
the latest indication that the housing market remains in a correction phase. Sales dipped to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 915,000 units, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. This was nearly 16% off the pace from a year ago. According to NAHB Chief Economist David Seiders, "The gradual decline in new-home sales is still underway, and we expect this trend to continue as the market approaches the bottom. We expect home sales to stabilize before the end of the year, followed by a systematic multi-year recovery beginning in 2008."
Commerce indicated that the inventory of new homes for sale edged down 1.1% in May to 536,000 units, which is equal to a 7.1-month supply at the May sales pace. Completed homes for sale made up 33% of this inventory, while units still under construction represented almost 51% and units for sale that were permitted but not yet started represented 16%. The median length of time that completed homes were on the market was 5.7 months in May, which was down from 5.9 months in April. Read NAHB's press release or the government report online.
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Indianapolis and Youngstown tied for most affordable housing market
 in the first quarter of 2007, according to the latest reading of the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI). In both cities, 89% of new and existing homes sold in the quarter were affordable to families earning their respective median household incomes of $63,800 and $51,400. In the metropolitan area encompassing Indianapolis-Carmel, Ind., the median sales price of homes sold in the quarter was $116,000, while in the Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, Ohio-Pa. metro area, it was just $78,000.
Meanwhile, nationwide affordability improved somewhat during the first quarter of 2007. The latest HOI indicates that 44% of new and existing homes sold across the United States were affordable to families earning the national median income. This is up from the final quarter of 2006, when only 41.6% of homes sold were affordable to median income-earners. Reasons for the improved affordability included lower mortgage rates in the beginning of this year and also lower home prices. Read more in our press release, see the HOI tables online, or contact Gopal Ahluwalia (x8480) or Rose Quint (x8527) for more information.
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A new bill to establish an Affordable Housing Trust Fund
met with NAHB praise and support when it was introduced by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) on June 28. The trust fund would support the creation of affordable housing opportunities for low-income people. Cosponsored by Reps. Maxine Waters (D-CA), Gary Miller (R-CA), John McHugh (R-NY) and Jim Ramstad (R-MN), the bipartisan National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act of 2007 aims to help produce, rehabilitate and preserve 1.5 million units of affordable housing over the next 10 years. In a letter to Rep. Frank signed by NAHB SSVP for Government Affairs Joe Stanton, NAHB told the lawmaker that we are interested in working with him to ensure that the legislation has:
-Income targeting requirements that allow grantees and grant recipients to meet the fullest range of critical housing needs;
-Affordable housing stipulations that allow effective and efficient use of trust fund monies in conjunction with other federal and state housing programs;
-Appropriate comprehensive definitions of eligible activities; and
-Adequate standards of experience and capacity for grant recipients, along with results-focused allocation criteria, to ensure the best possible use of this valuable resource.
See NBN Online for details, or contact Scott Meyer, x8144.
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Register for the 2008 IBS today
by going online at http://www.buildersshow.com/. That's right – online registration and housing registration are both now open for the next IBS, to be held Feb. 13-16, 2008 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL. Once again, the show is expected to draw more than 100,000 attendees, with more than 1,900 exhibitors on hand and over one million square feet of products and services for you to explore. In addition, the show will this year feature nearly 300 education seminars to help you grow your business and make it more profitable. To receive an earlybird registration discount and to request a room within your state hotel room block, you'll need to register by Oct. 26, 2007. NAHB members who are first-time attendees can register for the show at a deeply discounted price of just $100. This fee provides access to both the education seminars and exhibits, and is only valid for attendees who have not registered in the past for the IBS as members of NAHB. For more info on this special option, please visit www.BuildersShow.com/Firsttime. Go to the show Web site or contact NAHB's Conventions & Meetings Division at x8111 for more information.
NAHB Member Benefit: The builders' show is one of NAHB's biggest member benefits. It gives you access to the best networking forum, the most cutting-edge products, and incredible education seminars aimed at building your business — all at a discounted rate for NAHB members. Many members regard the IBS as hands-down the most important event to attend each year.
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Awards news
NAHB's National Housing Endowment Awards Grants
for Construction Training and Education Programs
NAHB Names Joy Herlong the Housing Credit Certified Professional of the Year
Home Building Educational Software From NAHB Wins ASAE's
2007 Associations Advance America Award
Casa Y Comunidad: Latino Home and Neighborhood Design
Named Winner in Prestigious Franklin Awards
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The Monday Morning Briefing will not appear next week
due to ongoing preparations for the Summer Executive Board meeting coming up in San Francisco. We'll be back on July 23 with news from that event and other subjects affecting the NAHB leadership, so stay tuned!
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