Senate Focuses on Housing Fix to Jump Start the Economy

NAHB’s intensive long-term lobbying efforts paid dividends when the Senate last week unveiled its bipartisan blueprint for housing legislation that includes several association priorities:

1. FHA modernization. The maximum Federal Housing Administration-insured loan would increase to 110% of a region’s median home price, up to a maximum of $550,000, with a minimum downpayment of 3.5%, up from 3% currently. When a temporary limit in the economic stimulus package of $729,000 for high-cost areas expires at the end of this year, the FHA limit is set to return to 95% of the regional median home price, up to $362,000. ...
   

Albany Builders Put Strength of Their Market in the News

Media coverage of the national housing downturn was having a negative impact on the Capital Region Builders & Remodelers Association’s (CRBRA) market.

But in reality, the region — which consists of the New York communities of Troy, Schenectady, Albany and Saratoga County — is attracting new high-tech businesses and has weathered the downturn much better than other areas of the country. Home prices, payroll employment and population all rose in the past year. ...

EPA Releases Lead Paint Rule

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Lead: Renovation, Repair and Painting rule governing professional remodelers doing work in homes where there is lead-based paint was signed by EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson last week and will take effect in April 2010.

The rule addresses remodeling and renovation projects disturbing more than six square feet of potentially contaminated painted surfaces for all residential and multifamily structures built prior to 1978 that are inhabited or frequented by pregnant women and children under the age of six.

“The rule is a positive step after so many years of delay,” said Lonny Rutherford, CGR, CAPS, the NAHB Remodelers chairman and owner of Legacy Construction in Farmington, N.M. “We all need to work together to help reduce the incidence of lead-based paint exposure to young children.”

The rule requires a cleaning inspection after the work is completed and grants the remodeler flexibility in determining the size of the work area, which can reduce the size of the area subject to containment. ...