Michael Dey Elected as President of the Executive Officers Council

Your Home Builders Association of Greenville's Chief Executive Officer Michael Dey recently attended the Association Leadership Institute in San Antonio where he was officially elected as the President of the Executive Officers Council of the National Association of Home Builders.

He gave his acceptance speech and proudly represented Greenville at this national event. We are lucky to have such a great leader in our association!

Michael also accepted the Association of Excellence's 2015 Best HBA Partnership/Coalition Award for our partnership with the Greater Greenville Association of REALTORS and Upstate Mortgage Lenders Association in producing the Housing Market Forecast.

Welcome New Staff

Fall brings changes in the seasons.  It also has brought changes to the staff of the Home Builders Association of Greenville and the Southern Home and Garden Show.

The association and N-tegrate, the contractor that has managed the Southern Home and Garden Show since 2013, have changed the working relationship between the Home Show and N-tegrate.  N-tegrate will continue the manage marketing, advertising, and creative for the Southern Home and Garden Show.  The association is bringing management of the Southern Home and Garden Show onto its internal staff.

Dana Lyn Hoover, who managed sales for N-tegrate, has left N-tegrate and joined the staff of the Home Builders Association of Greenville as Director of Business Development.  In that capacity Dana Lyn will manage sales of the Home Show, as well as oversee membership and sponsorship development.  She also will work with association staff on the production of the Home Show.

Michael Dey, Executive Vice President, and Crystal Yanes, Director of Member Services, will assume expanded roles in the production of the Southern Home and Garden Show.  Continuing their roles with the Home Show will be Tammy Krimm, Members Services Manager, will manage contracts and bookkeeping for the Home Show, and Abbey West, who recently came full-time as Communications Manager, who will manage communications for the Home Show.

"Along with our Board of Directors and Home Show Committee members, I am pleased by the strength of the team we have assembled to produce the Southern Home and Garden Show as it enters its 56th year," said Michael Dey, Executive Vice President.  "We look forward to partnering with our members and exhibitors to continue to produce the largest and longest-running Home and Garden Show in South Carolina."

Jacqueline Jo Dey

Jacqueline Jo Dey passed away on July 20, 2015, at her home in Dawsonville, GA, surrounded by her family.  She was 74.

She is survived by her husband of 53 years, Jerry Dey of Dawsonville, GA.  She is also survived by her four children, Michael Dey and his wife, Karen, of Greenville and Columbia, SC; Mark Dey and his wife, Lisa, of Rock Hill, SC; Michelle Hughes, of Orangeburg, SC; and Susan Koblasz and her husband, Jim, of Cumming, GA.  She also is  survived by her seven grandchildren, Patrick Dey of Denver, CO; Stacey Dey of West Columbia, SC; Bradley Dey and his wife, Miranda, of Greer, SC; Christopher Hughes of Newberry, SC; Cameron Dey of Rock Hill SC; Erin Koblasz of Cumming, GA; and Katie Koblasz of Cumming, GA.  She is further survived by one great grandchild, Linden Dey of Greer, SC.  She was preceded in death by her parents, Jack and Mildred Childers, her sister, Gerri Jean Rubino, and her brother, Ricky Keith Childers.  

Known to family and friends as Jackie, she was a native of Virgie, KY.  She graduated from Roseville High School in Roseville, MI.  A professional lab technician, Jackie devoted her career to the care of others, but devoted her life to her family and friends.  Jackie cherished family trips to Edisto Beach, SC, and her home state of Kentucky.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Alzheimer’s Association of Georgia or Good Shepherd Catholic Church, Cumming, GA.

Jackie's son, Michael Dey, is the Executive Officer of the Home Builders Association of Greenville. On behalf of the HBA members and staff we send our sincerest condolences to Michael and his family.  

Update: A memorial service will be held on Thursday, July 23rd at 11am at The Catholic Church of the Good Shepherd in Cumming GA.

HBA of Greenville Executive Officer, Michael Dey elected to Executive Officers Council (EOC) of NAHB.

2015 NAHB Executive Officers Council Announced  

Michael Dey, HBA of Greenville Executive Officer, has been elected to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Executive Officers Council (EOC) as 2015 Secretary and will be President of the EOC in 2017. Dey has been Executive Officer of the Home Builders Association of Greenville since 2007.
 
Dey is responsible for day-to-day management of the 350-member trade organization. Michael came to the HBA of Greenville from Columbia SC where he was president of Michael Dey Public Relations, a government affairs consulting firm which represented numerous clients before local, state, and federal governments regarding a variety of issues including real estate development, environmental, healthcare, and recreation.

Congratulations Michael!

Your HBA meets with Senator Tim Scott's Legislative Advisers

Michael Dey and Mike Freeman, GMB, left, meet with Senator Tim Scott's Legislative Advisers at the Realtors Association offices.

Mike Freeman, GMB, President of your Home Builders Association and Partner in ACA/Freewood Contracting, and Michael Dey, Executive Vice President, met today with legislative advisers to Senator Tim Scott.  The meeting was a joint session with the Greater Greenville Association of Realtors and Spartanburg Association of Realtors.

Joining the meeting from Senator Scott's staff were Jaron Smith, Senator Scott's Legislative Adviser on tax, budget, and banking issues, and Danielle Smith, Senator Scott's Upstate Regional Director.

The association representatives discussed the following topics:

1.  Reforming and preserving the mortgage finance system and in particular, ensuring the continuation of the fixed-rate 30-year mortgage
2. Blocking EPA rulemaking that will expand the definition of Waters of the U.S.
3. Preserve real estate-related tax policies including: renewing Mortgage Debt Forgiveness Relief Act, preserving the mortgage interest deduction, preserving the property tax deduction, and preserving like-kind (1031) exchanges
4. Reauthorize the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act

Your Home Builders Association would like to thank the Greater Greenville Association of Realtors for setting up and hosting the meeting. "We have a great partnership with GGAR on governmental affairs matters," said Michael Dey, Executive Vice President.  "Our coalition continues to produce great results for the members of both associations."

Quinn, Dey meet with Senator Tim Scott's Chief of Staff

HBA of Greenville President Rick Quinn and Executive Vice President Michael Dey participated in a roundtable discussion with Mike Bennett, Chief of Staff of United States Senator Tim Scott.  Bennett visited Greenville this week and met with several business and economic development leaders from the Upstate.

Quinn presented data from the Economic Impact of Home Building Study commissioned by the HBA of Greenville.  Quinn and Dey emphasized the association's position on the following Federal issues:

• Preserve or gradually phase out the Federal government's role in housing finance
• Maintain the current Mortgage Interest Deduction
• Address the over regulation of housing and small business which is stifling economic growth

Quinn and Dey discussed the importance of home building to the economy and the need to avoid Federal action that could cause another housing recession.

HBA of Greenville works to resolve stormwater regulatory issues

Your HBA of Greenville is working to resolve regulatory issues for stormwater management.  This week President Rick Quinn, Executive Vice President Michael Dey, and HBASC Executive Director Mark Nix met with SCDHEC Commissioner Catherine Templeton to discuss the burdens that excessive stormwater regulation is having on home builders.

As a result, SCDHEC has agreed to participate in a Government Affairs Forum hosted by the HBA of Greenville.  HBA members and local government officials will have the opportunity to present to DHEC staff specific examples of how recently-adopted or proposed permits are exceeding requirements of law and negatively impacting home building.

Specifics of the Government Affairs Forum are:

When: July 25, 2013, 2 p.m. until 5 p.m.
Where: TD Convention Center, Woodside Conference Center

Commissioner Templeton has announced that she will attend the Government Affairs Forum.

Greenville Water Commission Restores Line Extension Policy, Increase Fee

At its May meeting the Greenville Water Commission restored its previously adopted policy on extending new water lines that had been suspended by CEO David Bereskin.  In the same action, however, the commission increase the fee for extending water lines to $30 per linear foot from $20 per foot.  Under the policy the commission bears the complete responsibility and cost for extending water lines which can cost upwards of $70 per foot, but average about $36 per foot.

The HBA of Greenville agreed to the fee increase.

The commission and its staff will work with the HBA to develop a new line extension policy.  The commission would prefer that developers bear the responsibility and cost for extending water lines.  The HBA leans toward maintaining the current policy.  "It is always our objective to work with government to solve problems in a manner that produces the best result for all parties," Michael Dey, Executive Vice President of the HBA of Greenville said.  "We will work with the commission to develop a new policy in a manner consistent with our government affairs objectives."

HBA of Greenville featured in the Washington Post

The Washington Post today featured the HBA of Greenville, the Greenville community, and HBA of Greenville Past President Tom Dillard in a story about improving housing markets around the country.  Also quoted was HBA of Greenville Executive Vice President Michael Dey and NAHB Senior Economist Robert Denk.  Check out the story in the Washington Post by clicking here.

HBA Builder Breakfast set for July 26; program will feature new benefits for Builders

Your HBA of Greenville will host a Builder Breakfast for HBA Builder members Thursday, July 26, 8 a.m., at Tommy's Country Ham House.  Builder members are invited to attend compliments of our sponsor, Great American Insurance Group.

The agenda for the meeting is as follows:

1. Presentation and discussion of new qualifications of membership for HBA Builder Members
2. Presentation of a new benefit of membership: Legal Hotline
3. Presentation by Great American Insurance Group of the HBA of Greenville Builders Risk Program

This event is open to Builder members and invited guests only.

A note to our Associate Members from Michael Dey, Executive Vice President: your HBA of Greenville has not held a Builder-only meeting since 2007.  It is not our plan to make these meetings a regular occurrence.  However, we have several items of business we need to discuss with our Builder members that necessitate this meeting.  I would like to thank Great American Insurance Group for sponsoring the breakfast and offering our Builder members a discount program for their Builders Risk Insurance needs that is exclusive to members of the HBA of Greenville.

The case against Case-Shiller

by Michael Dey, Executive Vice President, Home Builders Association of Greenville

While the FHFA House Price Index was reported up .3 percent in February, the Case-Shiller Index, which measures just the top 10 and top 20 housing markets in the country, was down.  According to Forbes, the Case-Shiller Index fell .8 percent from January to February.

The difference between the two indexes is considerable.  The FHFA House Price Index is a measure of all housing markets in the country based on mortgage activity backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  The Case-Shiller Index measures just the top 10 and top 20 housing markets in the country.  Case-Shiller tracks repeat home sales over time.  FHFA is indexed to the contract mortgage amounts.

And therein lies the problem with the Case-Shiller Index; it measures just the largest housing markets, which is not a reflection of the whole country.  Most markets in the country don't come anywhere close to the 50,000 housing starts each year that were commonplace in markets like Atlanta.  And most housing markets did not experience the massive over building that occurred in many of the top housing markets, primarily because the smaller markets did not have the capacity to build on the scale that is possible in the largest markets.

Even more interesting is the fact that Robert Shiller, one of the founders of the Case-Shiller Index, was quoted by Reuters this week that the housing market will remain weak for a generation because suburban areas have lost their appeal to "walkable cities," the result of high gas prices.  Gas prices may be a factor if you live 30 miles from work in suburban Atlanta, but compact markets like Greenville will not be impacted by gas prices in the same way that a sprawling top 20 market is impacted.

Also consider that many of the top housing markets are in states that have been shedding population and jobs since long before the recession.  Much of that population and jobs have relocated to smaller markets in Southern and coastal states.

The continued reliance on data from the top 10 or 20 markets in the country as a barometer for the whole housing market provides a false sense of what is happening in the rest of the country.  For example, in Greenville building activity is up 60 percent in the last year.  And bear this in mind: just like the Case-Shiller Index provides an incomplete measure of housing today, it also provided an incomplete measure of housing seven years ago when those top 20 markets were red hot.  Could reliance on incomplete data have contributed to the overheated housing market of the recent past.  Is incomplete data contributing to the current overbearing regulation of housing activity today, particularly in smaller prospering markets like Greenville?

Federal regulators, banks, Congress, the White House, and the media would be better served to evaluate housing market-by-market, rather than rely on an index that is limited to just 20 out of the 270 markets in the nation.  Even though Case-Shiller says it measures 75 percent of the housing activity in the country, it still only measures 7 percent of the individual housing markets.

Why you should behave in public

by Michael Dey, Executive Vice President
Home Builders Association of Greenville

Do you wear a shirt with your company's name and logo on it?  Does your vehicle have your company listed on the door?

Just last week I was driving on the freeway and another driver aggressively passed me and changed lanes in front of me.  He was in a hurry I am sure, but what got my attention was the magnetic sign on the rear of his pick up truck.  Right there in front of me was the name of his company, phone number, and website address.

I called him.  Not to complain, but to give him this advice: be careful what you do in public.  After all, what do you think is the likelihood that I will do business with a person who causes me to have to take evasive action to avoid an accident on the freeway?  If you guessed not likely, you guessed correctly.  And that is the same reaction every other person in public will have when you misbehave in public, and the name of your company is prominently displayed on your shirt, or your vehicle.

If found this article in Remodeling this morning that reinforces this advice.  It is a short article by Kathy Shertzer that offers the same advice: behave in public.

Annual Chili Cook Off and Oyster Roast raises money for PAC

The annual Chili Cook Off and Oyster Roast helped raised needed money for S.C. Builders PAC this week.

Partners who helped make the Chili Cook Off possible include:

• Presenting Partners
• Dillard Jones Builders
• Clark's Services
• Hosts
• GBS Building Supply
• Keith Smith Builders
• Patrons
• Gallivan, White & Boyd
• Michael and Karen Dey

More than 60 members and guests judged the annual chili cook off contest, played the game "corn hole," and enjoyed steamed oysters prepared by Clark's Services.

Special thank you to Deana Long of Carter Lumber Company, who raised $100 selling tickets for the PAC 50/50 Raffle.

This year's event was held in the Atrium and on the patio at the TD Convention Center.

S.C. Builders PAC is a cooperative Political Action Committee managed by the Home Builders Association of South Carolina.  Local HBAs throughout South Carolina raise funds for the PAC.  PAC funds are used to support candidates for public office who support housing and home building.  PAC contributions are voluntary. The association's Legislative Committee screens candidates for office and recommends contributions to the association's Board of Directors.  Candidates for statewide office are further screened by a Board of Trustees made up of representatives from each of the local HBAs across the state.

Greenville Business Magazine features how generations affect home buying

In their July issue, Greenville Business Magazine featured a young couple that represents the next generation of home buyers. The article discusses their buying preferences and how the preferences of their generation will be different from those of previous generations.

The article also details research done by HBA Executive Vice President Michael Dey on how demographics have affected the home building industry. In the article Dey contends that reduced demand resulted in the housing market collapse and contributed to the financial market meltdown--that the financial market collapse was a victim of reduced demand, not the cause of it. He states that demand will recover when the next generation of first-time home buyers, Generation Y, begin buying homes in earnest in the next several years.

Read the entire article at Greenville Business Magazine by clicking here. Scroll to page 20 for the article titled "Generational Homebuying."