Value of Membership: $260 per room

We continue our series about how your HBA and its affiliate, NAHB, have logged significant victories advocating for members in the legal, legislative and regulatory arenas during 2012. 
Our advocacy efforts have saved the typical home builder about $7,250 per housing start in 2012, including both single-family and multifamily.

We saved Remodelers $260 per room on lead testing requirement. In a victory for NAHB Remodelers, the EPA rejected a proposal to add third-party clearance testing to the Lead: Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule, a requirement that would cost NAHB members $260 per professionally remodeled room (923,000 rooms in 2012). This issue concerns a requirement for a “swipe test” following professional remodeling in all pre-1978 houses. This rule was expected to cost $260 per professionally remodeled room and that, according to the EPA, would cost $400 million nationwide.

Thus, annual savings are: $260 x the number of rooms to be professionally remodeled in 2012 = Total 2012 savings. NAHB estimates that 60% of remodeling work was done professionally (2009 American Housing Survey) and that 1.5 million rooms were remodeled in 2012. That saved the industry $240 million in 2012.