$20,470

That is the estimated savings for each home built in South Carolina due to the efforts of the Government Affairs Team of the HBA of South Carolina during the 2010 legislative session.

The Home Builders Association influences government on all levels. Our goal is to protect affordable housing and needless regulatory costs, which ultimately trickles down and effects everyone who works in the home building industry. Below are just a
few of the bills we influenced:

Fire Sprinkler Bill. Stopped the passage of the fire sprinkler bill, which would have mandated the installation of fire sprinklers in all new homes built beginning in 2011.
Annual Benefit: More than $100 million

Permit Extension Bill. Passed the permit extension bill, which prevents the wholesale abandonment of already-approved projects
by extending the term of the permits for a set period of time as the economy improves.
Annual Benefit: $15 million

Home Buyer Tax Credit. Supported the home buyer tax credit bill, which helped to reduce housing inventories, stabilize home values, and increased housing demand.
Annual Benefit: $146 million

The estimated savings for each home built in South Carolina due to the efforts of the government affairs team during the 2010 legislative session: $20,470

HBA of South Carolina is in Business to Keep You in Business.

South Carolina to gain one additional seat in Congress

The U.S. Census Bureau released state-by-state population data from the 2010 census. South Carolina will add one seat in Congress beginning in 2012, bringing its total representation to nine—seven in the House of Representatives, two in the Senate.

South Carolina's population grew by 612,000, to 4,625,364, between 2000 and 2010, at 15.3 percent growth rate.

Read the entire report at GSA Business by clicking here.

Swamp Rabbit Trail Needs Community Help to Seek Grant

The Swamp Rabbit Trail is a biking and walking path built along a former railroad corridor with the support of the Greenville Hospital System. The trail runs from the north end to the south end of the county and may someday become a part of a larger trail network.

The trail is applying for a grant from the Pepsi Foundation to fund development of trail crossing safety devices.

Community support is needed to qualify for the $250,000 grant. Voting ends December 31. Currently the trail is in 76th place. You can help put the trail in first place. Take 10 seconds to vote, and vote every day.

Click here to vote online.

Businesses and families from around the world are attracted to the Upstate and Greenville because of the quality of life and outdoor activities our community offer. The Swamp Rabbit Trail is an important component of our community's quality of life.

HBA of Greenville Elects Wayne Moore 2011 President

The Home Builders Association of Greenville elected Wayne Moore president of the association for 2011. He takes office January 1, 2011. The president is the top elected posted in the Home Builders Association of Greenville.

Moore is president of Harold Moore Builder, and is a second generation home builder and remodeler. Moore previously served as president of the association in 2000 and has served as a member of the association's Board of Directors for more than a decade. In addition, Moore is a Director of the Home Builders Association of South Carolina. Moore is a graduate of Clemson University.

In addition, the association's members elected Hal Dillard president elect of the Home Builders Association of Greenville. Dillard will serve as president in 2012. Dillard is President of H. Dillard Company, a Greenville-based home builder and property management company. Dillard also is a second generation builder and previously served as president of the association in 2004. Dillard is currently District Vice President of the Home Builders Association of South Carolina.

Also elected to the Board of Directors of the Home Builders Association of South Carolina are the following members:

• Vice President: Robert Markel, GMR
• Treasurer: Chuck Childress
• Associate Vice President: Scott Presley
• Immediate Past President: Thomas Dillard, CGP
• President’s Appointee: Richard Powers
• Associate Director: Larry Hazenfield
• Associate Director: Lou Hutchings
• Builder Director: Hardy Peters
• Builder Director: Chris Bailey
• Builder Director: Alan Boone
• Builder Director: Mike Freeman, GMB
• Builder Director: Brad Thompson, CMB

Continuing to serve on the association's Board of Directors:

• Associate Director: Michael Cox
• Associate Director: Jim Blume
• Associate Director: Tom Ward
• Associate Director: Eric Hedrick
• Builder Director: Dan Rawls

Please congratulate and support the 2011 Board of Directors.

Quality of Life Driving Upstate Population Growth

The recently completed census found that population in the Greenville County grew by 18.9 percent. According to an analysis by the Greenville News, the newcomers have tended to be more highly educated, and nearly 15,000 of the newcomers to the county since 2000 have been foreign born. As a result, the percentage of those living in Greenville County who have a four-year college degree is 29.1 percent, above the national average.

Reasons sited for this trend include a high quality of life, employment opportunities, proximity to the I-85 corridor and other larger cities like Atlanta and Charlotte, and easy access to the mountains and the coast.

Housing Starts Rise 3.9 Percent in November

Nationwide housing starts rose 3.9 percent in November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 555,000 units from an upwardly revised number in the previous month, according to newly released data from the U.S. Commerce Department. This marked the first upward movement in new-home production since August, and was entirely attributable to a nearly 7 percent gain in single-family home building.

"Builders are very cautiously adding to their diminished inventories in preparation for the spring buying season and an anticipated modest revival in buyer demand when the economy shows more signs of improvement," said Bob Jones, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder from Bloomfield Hills, Mich. "That said, we are still looking at a very low level of housing production, due largely to builders' inability to obtain construction financing."

"The modest increase in single-family starts and permits in November is consistent with a very low inventory of unsold new homes and our member surveys that have shown a degree of optimism among builders with regard to sales expectations in the next six months," said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. "However, builders continue to find it extremely difficult to obtain credit for acquisition, development and construction activities, and this is weighing on their ability to initiate viable new projects that could generate much-needed job growth."

The 3.9 percent gain in overall housing starts this November was due entirely to a 6.9 percent increase to a 465,000 unit seasonally adjusted annual rate of new-home production on the single-family side. Meanwhile, multifamily housing starts declined 9.1 percent to a 90,000-unit rate.

Regionally, starts activity showed gains in all but one part of the country in November. The Midwest, South and West each posted gains, of 15.8 percent, 2.3 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively, while the Northeast posted a 2.5 percent decline.

Permit issuance, which can be an indicator of future building activity, declined 4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 530,000 units in November, its lowest level since April of 2009. However, this decline was entirely due to a 23 percent drop-off in the more volatile multifamily sector, where permits hit a seasonally adjusted annual rate of just 114,000 units. In contrast, single-family permits rose 3 percent to a rate of 416,000 units – their highest level since this June.

Regionally, permit activity was mixed in November, with the Northeast and Midwest registering declines of 8.3 percent and 22.2 percent, respectively, and the South and West posting gains of 1.9 percent and 2.7 percent, respectively.

Employment in Greenville Improving Faster than State, Nation

The employment forecast for the Greenville area is improving according to a report in the Greenville News. Economists see a developing trend where unemployment in Greenville County tracks below the state and national average in 2011.

According to Bruce Yandle, Clemson University Economist, "Greenville is already doing better than the state in the recovery."

According to the Greenville News, the county's jobless rate is at 8.7 percent, below the national rate of 9.3 percent and the state rate of 10.7 percent, and dramatic improvement over the county's 11 percent unemployment rate one year ago.

Economic development and job creation in the automotive sector is widely credited with the employment improvement in the Greenville area.