Immigration Bill Dead for Now, But Reforms Still Needed

The Senate last Thursday effectively ended consideration of immigration reform for the foreseeable future.

Though the Senate failed to keep the legislation alive, NAHB urged lawmakers not to abandon efforts to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws. ...

Study Finds Wide Range of Estimated 2007 New Home Prices

On a state basis, there are no bigger differences in median new home prices in the country than between Hawaii, where an owner-occupied home built this year will cost $544,000, and Mississippi, where the price will be about a quarter of that amount, or $135,000, according to estimates by NAHB Housing Economics researchers Paul Emrath and Fei Liu.

Looking at median new home prices for 2007 in 354 metropolitan areas, the special study finds an even greater range — from a low of $86,000 in Charleston, W.Va. to a high of $849,000 in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif. The two locations differ by a factor of 10 in their home prices. ...

Ads like this one are available through NAHB's advertising assistance grant program.

Almost $1 Million Available in ‘Buy Now’ Grant Funds, Apply Now

NAHB has a little less than $1 million in “Buy Now” advertising assistance grants still available to local associations to bolster home sales in markets hit hard by the current housing downturn.

NAHB is encouraging HBAs that have not yet received or been approved to receive grant money to apply today.

To date, 117 HBAs in 36 states have received or been approved to receive more than $2 million in NAHB advertising assistance. Including the matching funds that the HBAs contributed, the total value of their advertising campaigns is more than $6.1 million.

The NAHB “Buy Now” Advertising Assistance Program provides grants to qualifying HBAs in three categories:

• HBAs conducting ad campaigns in the top 10 media markets (Tier 1)
• HBAs with more than 250 members operating in areas outside of the top 10 major media markets (Tier 2)
• HBAs with 250 or fewer members (Tier 3) ...