| June 23, 2008 |
By Sandy Dunn
NAHB President and
Jerry Howard
NAHB Executive VP and CEO |
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Dialing up the pressure on Congress to act
on crucial housing stimulus legislation prior to its July 4 recess, NAHB held a special teleconference on June 16 that attracted significant media attention.
 Approximately 120 reporters and financial analysts tuned-in to the call, in which we released the results of the latest NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) of builder confidence. The HMI returned to its lowest-ever reading of 18 in June, providing additional evidence that federal action is necessary to bolster housing markets and avert greater harm to the economy. While NAHB EVP/CEO Jerry Howard provided the policy perspective, Chief Economist David Seiders provided analysis of the latest HMI numbers, and home builder Vince Napolitano provided a personal account of the dire conditions that he and builders across the country are facing.
To hasten consideration of a stimulus package, Jerry announced that NAHB was dropping its support for a net operating loss carryback provision. He noted that Congress must focus on quickly passing a housing bill whose signature provision is a home buyer tax credit. The tax credit is the best stimulative measure to shore up home prices and stabilize housing and financial markets, and because it is so important, Jerry urged Congress to adopt the biggest and broadest tax credit possible.
NAHB Member Benefit: To say that NAHB dominated the airwaves (and Internet) with our messages on June 16 would be an understatement. The 120 participants who registered for the teleconference included members of the media from The Wall Street Journal to the Associated Press, Dow Jones, Reuters, CNBC, Bloomberg, Roll Call and Politico. In addition, following the teleconference, Dave Seiders conducted interviews with Bloomberg TV and CBS Marketwatch Radio, while Fox Business News aired a segment covering our event and messages. Contact Jay Shackford (x8406) for more information on our ad campaign.
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Mobilizing the entire NAHB membership
 as well as visitors to our Web site and key industry partners in the effort to push Congress to act on a housing stimulus package, NAHB this week ran a headline story in Nation's Building News and issued a special Legislative Alert urging recipients to contact their federal lawmakers. Our members are being encouraged to share their stories on how the housing downturn has affected their businesses and local communities, and to tell their elected officials to act before the Independence Day holiday. In conjunction with this grassroots push, NAHB has been running ads (see picture in story above) in USA Today, Roll Call and Politico under the headline, "America is hurting." The ads convey the message that families are losing their homes in record numbers while unemployment is rising and millions of Americans are seeing the value of their homes fall; but Congress can help reduce this downward spiral by quickly enacting targeted stimulus legislation.
NAHB Member Benefit: NAHB members were encouraged to use our Builderlink resource to keep them informed about our grassroots lobbying efforts. Other great resources in this effort include our regularly produced credit crunch update and talking points, which Public Affairs most recently produced and sent out to the leadership on June 16. Contact Molly Murray (x8282) for info on BuilderLink and Michael Strauss (x8252) for help in accessing the credit crunch talking points.
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Builder confidence sagged this month
according to our latest industry survey. The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index for June slipped one point to 18, returning to the record low that was posted in December of 2007 (the series was initiated in January of 1985). Released during a special press teleconference that took advantage of the media's widespread interest in the HMI data to spotlight the need for an immediate housing stimulus, the index garnered serious media attention. Its component indexes gauging current sales conditions in the market for newly built single-family homes and sales expectations for the next six months held even with their May levels at 17 and 28, respectively. Meanwhile, the component gauging traffic of prospective buyers fell a single point to 17. Regionally, HMI results were mixed, with the Northeast posting a six-point decline to 12 on the index (its lowest reading since that series began at the end of 2004), the Midwest posted a five-point gain to 17, the South was unchanged at 22 and the West posted a four-point decline to 16 in June. Read our HMI press release or see the HMI tables online. Contacts: Gopal Ahluwalia (x8480) or Ashok Chaluvadi (x8482).
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Builders slowed the pace of new-home production in May
 by 3.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 975,000 units, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. This was the lowest total starts number since March of 1991. Meanwhile, single-family starts declined 1% to a rate of 674,000 units, their slowest pace since January of 1991. Clearly, builders are doing the right thing to try to keep a lid on the inventory of unsold homes on the market until demand picks up again, NAHB told the media. Building permits also fell in May, by 1.3% overall to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 969,000 units, with single-family permits down 4% to 623,000 units and multifamily permits up almost 4% to 346,000 units. Once again, NAHB used the somber news from this report to turn up the pressure on lawmakers. "Evidence suggests that some pent-up demand is out there," said NAHB Chief Economist Dave Seiders, "but Congress and the Administration need to do what they can to help release it. A temporary home buyer tax credit would be just the incentive that many qualified buyers need to go forward with their homeownership plans." Read our press release or see the government's report online.
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Covering all the bases to get helpful information to our members
 is a primary concern of NAHB as the housing downturn continues. And where better to focus our outreach than on local association Executive Officers, who are on the front lines of our communications efforts? With this in mind, NAHB's Public Affairs and Economics groups held a special Myth Buster Teleconference on June 18 to bring everybody up to speed on the resources we've developed and how best to use them to help our members at every level. About 62 EOs dialed-in to the call, which was moderated by NAHB Public Affairs Committee Chairman Rick Judson. The hour-long event was the perfect venue for a discussion on how our locals can help combat some of the more negative media reports regarding their individual housing markets. Resources highlighted in the call included a large variety of items featured in our Myth Buster campaign, as well as public relations tools, our Buy Now promotional toolkit, spokesperson training seminars and economic data. For more information on the EO teleconference, please contact Gwyn Donohue (x8447).
NAHB Member Benefit: NAHB is committed to getting as much helpful information and practical resources to our local HBAs as possible to help our builder members successfully navigate the current downturn. Your HBA's connection with NAHB is a lifeline of support through which you can access the full array of benefits that are at your disposal as part of a 235,000-member national association.
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