The Builder Breakfast was held at Tommy's Ham House, 214 Rutherford St., Greenville on Thursday Feb 21st. This event was sponsored by Piedmont Natural Gas, and featured Mark Nix, Executive Direct or HBA of South Carolina, and Michael Dey, Executive Vice President of the HBA of Greenville both giving overviews of the government affairs scene in Columbia and in the Upstate. Keep in mind that these meetings are open to all HBA builder and remodeler members at no charge. The next Builder Breakfast is May 30th
The Home Builders Association of Greenville are your neighbors and community leaders providing education and support for building industry professionals. We create jobs, encourage homeownership, and promote responsible growth throughout the upstate of South Carolina.
Monday, February 25, 2013
NAHB Recommends Reforms to Residential Appraisal System
NAHB this week publicly released a "Comprehensive Blueprint for Residential Appraisal Reform" that sets forth our association's recommendations for addressing serious problems in the residential appraisal process.
This landmark white paper, completion which was first announced to association members right after the 2013 International Builders' Show, notes that -- because appraisals are governed by multiple public and private entities and ultimately by states -- standards and requirements can vary greatly, resulting in a system that is inconsistent, confusing and does not serve consumers well.
To address these problems, a special Appraisal Working Group was established last year to develop formal recommendations for comprehensive residential appraisal reform. Members of the working group included home builders as well as representatives from the financial and appraisal sectors, and input was sought from representatives of every stakeholder group.
Praising the efforts of Appraisal Working Group, co-Chairs Barry Rutenberg and Joe Robson, 2013 NAHB Chairman Rick Judson noted that, "Even as the residential construction industry shows signs of recovery, housing activity is thwarted by an appraisal system that remains dysfunctional and is a major impediment to a stable housing finance framework. Until we see meaningful appraisal reform, the U.S. housing finance system will be operating under unprecedented uncertainty.”
The white paper offers specific recommendations for changes to all aspects of the appraisal system, and will form the basis of our outreach to policymakers as we encourage them to move forward on its proposals. To access the report, visitwww.nahb.org/appraisalwhitepaper.
This landmark white paper, completion which was first announced to association members right after the 2013 International Builders' Show, notes that -- because appraisals are governed by multiple public and private entities and ultimately by states -- standards and requirements can vary greatly, resulting in a system that is inconsistent, confusing and does not serve consumers well.
To address these problems, a special Appraisal Working Group was established last year to develop formal recommendations for comprehensive residential appraisal reform. Members of the working group included home builders as well as representatives from the financial and appraisal sectors, and input was sought from representatives of every stakeholder group.
Praising the efforts of Appraisal Working Group, co-Chairs Barry Rutenberg and Joe Robson, 2013 NAHB Chairman Rick Judson noted that, "Even as the residential construction industry shows signs of recovery, housing activity is thwarted by an appraisal system that remains dysfunctional and is a major impediment to a stable housing finance framework. Until we see meaningful appraisal reform, the U.S. housing finance system will be operating under unprecedented uncertainty.”
The white paper offers specific recommendations for changes to all aspects of the appraisal system, and will form the basis of our outreach to policymakers as we encourage them to move forward on its proposals. To access the report, visitwww.nahb.org/appraisalwhitepaper.
NAHB: Top 12 Accomplishments, Number 8: Immigrant Housing Demand Model
Builder Review Daily is highlighting the top 12 actions taken on behalf of Home Builders so far this Spring.
Accomplishment number 8: Development of a Model that Predicts Housing Demand From New Immigrants (and Other Important Economic Studies)
NAHB has developed a model that takes into account the age of newly arriving immigrants, region of origin and length of stay in the United States. The model then assigns probabilities of becoming a head of household, purchasing a home and moving into single-family or multifamily property based on immigrants' characteristics. An analysis facilitated by this model reveals that new immigrants can conservatively be expected to occupy more than 2 million multifamily units and 1.2 million single-family homes over the next 10 years, with more than 900,000 of these new immigrants becoming home owners.
Findings of this analysis are detailed in the NAHB study "Immigrants and Housing Demand," which is available free of charge from our HousingEconomics.com website and includes estimates of the rates at which immigrants form households, move into multi- or single-family housing units, and choose to buy or rent their residences.
NAHB's model predicts that, upon their arrival to the U.S., more than three quarters of new immigrants will choose multifamily units and other housing arrangements, while only 24% will immediately move into single-family attached or detached units. However, by the time these families have been in the U.S. for 10 years or more, close to 50% of them will have moved into single-family homes. And for European- and Asian-born households, the share of expected single-family dwellers after 10 years is even greater. Read more about what NAHB's model projects in terms of immigrant-based U.S. housing demand over the next decade by downloading a free copy of our latest study from HousingEconomics.com. Contact Natalia Siniavskaia at 800-368-5242 x8441.
Note: NAHB’s economics team constantly produces fresh, useful analysis of the most recent housing-related data that has applications to our members’ businesses, and makes that data available to our members free of charge. This is in addition to the department’s regular production of important indexes that gauge the health of the housing industry – theNAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index on builder confidence, the NAHB/First American Improving Markets Index, theNAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index, the Remodeling Market Index, the Multifamily Market Indices and the 50+ Housing Market Index. The surveys and analysis that NAHB’s economists conduct on a monthly and quarterly basis help our members achieve a better understanding of current market trends and where they are headed, while our media outreach in this regard ensures that accurate information on the housing market is transmitted to potential home buyers and the public at large. NAHB uses this data to conduct extensive media outreach in which we educate reporters about the historical context in which numbers should be viewed, discourage sensationalized accounts and ensure that home builders’ views are represented. NAHB also assists our members in dealing with media inquiries regarding recent releases of both NAHB and government data.
Accomplishment number 8: Development of a Model that Predicts Housing Demand From New Immigrants (and Other Important Economic Studies)
NAHB has developed a model that takes into account the age of newly arriving immigrants, region of origin and length of stay in the United States. The model then assigns probabilities of becoming a head of household, purchasing a home and moving into single-family or multifamily property based on immigrants' characteristics. An analysis facilitated by this model reveals that new immigrants can conservatively be expected to occupy more than 2 million multifamily units and 1.2 million single-family homes over the next 10 years, with more than 900,000 of these new immigrants becoming home owners.
Findings of this analysis are detailed in the NAHB study "Immigrants and Housing Demand," which is available free of charge from our HousingEconomics.com website and includes estimates of the rates at which immigrants form households, move into multi- or single-family housing units, and choose to buy or rent their residences.
NAHB's model predicts that, upon their arrival to the U.S., more than three quarters of new immigrants will choose multifamily units and other housing arrangements, while only 24% will immediately move into single-family attached or detached units. However, by the time these families have been in the U.S. for 10 years or more, close to 50% of them will have moved into single-family homes. And for European- and Asian-born households, the share of expected single-family dwellers after 10 years is even greater. Read more about what NAHB's model projects in terms of immigrant-based U.S. housing demand over the next decade by downloading a free copy of our latest study from HousingEconomics.com. Contact Natalia Siniavskaia at 800-368-5242 x8441.
Note: NAHB’s economics team constantly produces fresh, useful analysis of the most recent housing-related data that has applications to our members’ businesses, and makes that data available to our members free of charge. This is in addition to the department’s regular production of important indexes that gauge the health of the housing industry – theNAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index on builder confidence, the NAHB/First American Improving Markets Index, theNAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index, the Remodeling Market Index, the Multifamily Market Indices and the 50+ Housing Market Index. The surveys and analysis that NAHB’s economists conduct on a monthly and quarterly basis help our members achieve a better understanding of current market trends and where they are headed, while our media outreach in this regard ensures that accurate information on the housing market is transmitted to potential home buyers and the public at large. NAHB uses this data to conduct extensive media outreach in which we educate reporters about the historical context in which numbers should be viewed, discourage sensationalized accounts and ensure that home builders’ views are represented. NAHB also assists our members in dealing with media inquiries regarding recent releases of both NAHB and government data.
Friday, February 22, 2013
NAHB: Top 12 Accomplishments, Number 7: Member Ecoomic Toolkit
Builder Review Daily is highlighting the top 12 actions taken on behalf of Home Builders so far this Spring.
Accomplishment number 7: Providing Specialized Resource Toolkits to Help NAHB Members Position Their Businesses for the Economic Recovery
As directed by Chairman Barry Rutenberg earlier this year, NAHB has compiled a series of resources designed to help our members position their businesses to succeed and thrive as the economic situation improves. From guidance on improving how you build and sell homes, to general business management tactics, to briefings on specific issues such as appraisals, AD&C lending and more, the Rebounding Success Toolkits bring together the expertise of the NAHB federation in one comprehensive online resource.
Here's what's available to you with a click of your mouse:
Land Use 101 Toolkit - This toolkit helps members of the building industry to understand and deal with new federal programs under the Sustainable Communities Initiative and other land use issues. It provides tools to help HBAs and members get involved early in such reform efforts to ensure that their perspectives and experience are represented and that proposed new policies are based on evidence, not just theory.
Building Homes 101 Toolkit - This toolkit contains valuable information to help builders respond to the adverse shift in terms and availability of construction financing, access and evaluate various building products, avoid common pitfalls of certain building techniques, and take advantage of new green building options to appeal to today's buyers.
Selling Homes 101 Toolkit - This toolkit provides tips and tactics to successfully market yourself and your homes, including important information on obtaining more accurate appraisals, ways to educate consumers on the benefits of homeownership, and more.
Business Management 101 Toolkit - This toolkit provides important resources to help you manage your business more effectively and increase your profits. Its offerings cover strategic planning, financial management, marketing and sales, construction management, information technology and more.
Accomplishment number 7: Providing Specialized Resource Toolkits to Help NAHB Members Position Their Businesses for the Economic Recovery
As directed by Chairman Barry Rutenberg earlier this year, NAHB has compiled a series of resources designed to help our members position their businesses to succeed and thrive as the economic situation improves. From guidance on improving how you build and sell homes, to general business management tactics, to briefings on specific issues such as appraisals, AD&C lending and more, the Rebounding Success Toolkits bring together the expertise of the NAHB federation in one comprehensive online resource.
Here's what's available to you with a click of your mouse:
Land Use 101 Toolkit - This toolkit helps members of the building industry to understand and deal with new federal programs under the Sustainable Communities Initiative and other land use issues. It provides tools to help HBAs and members get involved early in such reform efforts to ensure that their perspectives and experience are represented and that proposed new policies are based on evidence, not just theory.
Building Homes 101 Toolkit - This toolkit contains valuable information to help builders respond to the adverse shift in terms and availability of construction financing, access and evaluate various building products, avoid common pitfalls of certain building techniques, and take advantage of new green building options to appeal to today's buyers.
Selling Homes 101 Toolkit - This toolkit provides tips and tactics to successfully market yourself and your homes, including important information on obtaining more accurate appraisals, ways to educate consumers on the benefits of homeownership, and more.
Business Management 101 Toolkit - This toolkit provides important resources to help you manage your business more effectively and increase your profits. Its offerings cover strategic planning, financial management, marketing and sales, construction management, information technology and more.
NAHB: Top 12 Accomplishments 2012, Number 6: HUD Fair Market Rent
Builder Review Daily is highlighting the top 12 actions taken on behalf of Home Builders so far this Spring.
Accomplishment number 6: Providing Recommendations That Were Implemented Within HUD’s Proposal on Fair Market Rent
In releasing its proposed fair market rents (FMRs) for fiscal year 2013, HUD employed several important NAHB recommendations that should help to avoid large and unpredictable changes in the future.
The new FMRs, which are scheduled to be implemented on Oct. 1, are used to determine payment standards for the Housing Choice Voucher program, to determine initial renewal rents for some expiring project-based Section 8 contracts, to determine initial rents for housing assistance payment contracts in the Moderate Rehabilitation Single Room Occupancy program, and to serve as rent ceilings for the HOME program.
Because housing costs are variable, HUD needs to publish FMRs for each local market area in the country every year. In proposing its latest FMRs, HUD used a new trend factor recommended by NAHB, which is based on the average rent changes in the American Community Survey between 2005 and 2010. NAHB believes this change is highly desirable to avoid large, unpredictable and difficult to manage swings in local FMRs. Also per NAHB’s suggestion, HUD made changes for calculating its “recent mover factor,” which compensates for rent data that does not distinguish recent movers from other tenants. The overall effect on the 2013 FMRs was an average increase of 5.7% across the 524 metropolitan FMR areas (excluding Guam and Puerto Rico) with actual declines limited to 90 of these metro FMR areas.
Accomplishment number 6: Providing Recommendations That Were Implemented Within HUD’s Proposal on Fair Market Rent
In releasing its proposed fair market rents (FMRs) for fiscal year 2013, HUD employed several important NAHB recommendations that should help to avoid large and unpredictable changes in the future.
The new FMRs, which are scheduled to be implemented on Oct. 1, are used to determine payment standards for the Housing Choice Voucher program, to determine initial renewal rents for some expiring project-based Section 8 contracts, to determine initial rents for housing assistance payment contracts in the Moderate Rehabilitation Single Room Occupancy program, and to serve as rent ceilings for the HOME program.
Because housing costs are variable, HUD needs to publish FMRs for each local market area in the country every year. In proposing its latest FMRs, HUD used a new trend factor recommended by NAHB, which is based on the average rent changes in the American Community Survey between 2005 and 2010. NAHB believes this change is highly desirable to avoid large, unpredictable and difficult to manage swings in local FMRs. Also per NAHB’s suggestion, HUD made changes for calculating its “recent mover factor,” which compensates for rent data that does not distinguish recent movers from other tenants. The overall effect on the 2013 FMRs was an average increase of 5.7% across the 524 metropolitan FMR areas (excluding Guam and Puerto Rico) with actual declines limited to 90 of these metro FMR areas.
Builder Confidence Virtually Unchanged in February
Builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes was virtually unchanged in February with a one-point decline to 46 on the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI), released today.
“Following solid gains over the past year, builder confidence has essentially leveled out and held in the same three-point range over the last four months,” noted NAHB Chairman Rick Judson, a home builder from Charlotte, N.C. “This is partly due to ongoing uncertainties about job growth and consumer access to mortgage credit, but it’s also a reflection of the fact that builders are now confronting rising costs for building materials and, in some markets, limited availability of labor and lots as demand for new homes strengthens.”
“Having risen strongly in 2012, the HMI hit a slight pause in the beginning of this year as builders adjusted their expectations to reflect the pace at which consumers are moving forward on new-home purchases,” observed NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. “The index remains near its highest level since May of 2006, and we expect home building to continue on a modest rising trajectory this year.”
Derived from a monthly survey that NAHB has been conducting for 25 years, the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index gauges builder perceptions of current single-family home sales and sales expectations for the next six months as “good,” “fair” or “poor.” The survey also asks builders to rate traffic of prospective buyers as “high to very high,” “average” or “low to very low.” Scores from each component are then used to calculate a seasonally adjusted index where any number over 50 indicates that more builders view conditions as good than poor.
Holding above the critical mid-point of 50 for a third consecutive month, the HMI component gauging current sales conditions fell by a single point to 51 in February. Meanwhile, the component gauging sales expectations in the next six months rose by one point, to 50, and the component gauging traffic of prospective buyers slipped four points, to 32.
Three-month moving averages for each region’s HMI score were mixed in February, with the Northeast up three points to 39 and the West up four points to 55 and the Midwest and South each down two points, to 48 and 47, respectively.
Editor’s Note: The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index is strictly the product of NAHB Economics, and is not seen or influenced by any outside party prior to being released to the public. HMI tables can be found at www.nahb.org/hmi. More information on housing statistics is also available at http://www.housingeconomics.com/.
Housing Starts Down on Typical Multifamily Volatility; Permits Hit Four-Year High
Due to a double-digit dip on the typically volatile multifamily side, nationwide housing starts declined 8.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 890,000 units in January, according to newly released data from HUD and the U.S. Census Bureau. Meanwhile, issuance of permits for new-home construction rose 1.8 percent to 925,000 units – the quickest pace since mid-2008.
“Steady demand for new homes is prompting builders to put more construction crews back to work in order to replenish thin supplies of completed product,” noted Rick Judson, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder from Charlotte, N.C. “We expect this progress to continue through the spring buying season and beyond, with credit availability and poor appraisals being the primary limiting factors.”
“Today’s report is quite positive in that it shows continued upward movement in single-family housing production and permitting activity for both single- and multifamily units,” noted NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. “Meanwhile, the decline in multifamily starts reflects an adjustment from an unsustainably large gain in December, and is consistent with the up-and-down swings that are often associated with that sector.”
In January, single-family housing starts were virtually unchanged from an improved pace in the previous month, registering a 0.8 percent gain to 613,000 units. This was the strongest pace of single-family housing production since July 2008. Meanwhile, multifamily housing starts, which tend to display significant month-to-month volatility, declined 24.1 percent to 277,000 units.
Regionally, combined single- and multifamily housing production gained 4.1 percent in the South and 16.7 percent in the West, but fell 35.3 percent in the Northeast and 50 percent in the Midwest in January.
Permit issuance, which can be an indicator of future building activity, rose 1.9 percent on the single-family side to a seasonally adjusted, annual pace of 584,000 units and rose 1.5 percent on the multifamily side to a 341,000-unit pace in January. Both were the strongest permit numbers seen since mid-2008.
Permitting activity rose in three out of four regions in January, with a 10.1 percent gain registered in the Northeast, a 1.4 percent gain registered in the Midwest and a 1.1 percent gain registered in the South. The West posted virtually no change in permitting activity, with a 0.5 percent decline.
“Steady demand for new homes is prompting builders to put more construction crews back to work in order to replenish thin supplies of completed product,” noted Rick Judson, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder from Charlotte, N.C. “We expect this progress to continue through the spring buying season and beyond, with credit availability and poor appraisals being the primary limiting factors.”
“Today’s report is quite positive in that it shows continued upward movement in single-family housing production and permitting activity for both single- and multifamily units,” noted NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. “Meanwhile, the decline in multifamily starts reflects an adjustment from an unsustainably large gain in December, and is consistent with the up-and-down swings that are often associated with that sector.”
In January, single-family housing starts were virtually unchanged from an improved pace in the previous month, registering a 0.8 percent gain to 613,000 units. This was the strongest pace of single-family housing production since July 2008. Meanwhile, multifamily housing starts, which tend to display significant month-to-month volatility, declined 24.1 percent to 277,000 units.
Regionally, combined single- and multifamily housing production gained 4.1 percent in the South and 16.7 percent in the West, but fell 35.3 percent in the Northeast and 50 percent in the Midwest in January.
Permit issuance, which can be an indicator of future building activity, rose 1.9 percent on the single-family side to a seasonally adjusted, annual pace of 584,000 units and rose 1.5 percent on the multifamily side to a 341,000-unit pace in January. Both were the strongest permit numbers seen since mid-2008.
Permitting activity rose in three out of four regions in January, with a 10.1 percent gain registered in the Northeast, a 1.4 percent gain registered in the Midwest and a 1.1 percent gain registered in the South. The West posted virtually no change in permitting activity, with a 0.5 percent decline.
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