NAHB Chairman Bob Nielsen, Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory and members of the Home Builders Association of Greater Cincinnati kicked off National Homeownership Month earlier this month at a groundbreaking ceremony for a new residential development in the city’s Bond Hill neighborhood.

The development, the Villages at Daybreak, is a product of Cincinnati’s long-running CiTiRAMA public-private partnership, which has helped invigorate the city's urban neighborhoods by encouraging the development of attractive and walkable new communities near the city center.

“At the start of National Homeownership Month, it’s important to realize all that we have achieved in making this country the best-housed nation on earth,” Nielsen said. “Because, looking down the road, changes that have been proposed to our national housing policy and programs could eventually make it much tougher for the American family to own a home.” 

Referring to recent proposals to eliminate or reduce the mortgage interest deduction, remove government support for the housing finance system and tighten lending requirements, proposals that would seriously jeopardize the average family’s ability to obtain a home of their own, Nielsen said, “Cincinnati deserves credit for the path it has taken with the CiTiRAMA partnership.”

“It is expanding homeownership opportunities in areas near public services and amenities,” he said. ”From educating new home buyers to supporting the development of new housing through engagement in public-private partnerships, Cincinnati has embraced the idea of homeownership and housing opportunity as a means to greater prosperity for its citizens.”

According to NAHB estimates, building a new single-family home creates three new jobs and generates $90,000 in federal, state and local tax revenue, $145,000 in wage income and $86,000 in net business income. The income earned from construction activity is spent and recycled in the local economy, and the new homes that are built become occupied by residents who pay taxes and buy locally produced goods and services.

Students from the Blueprint for Success program at the grand opening.

Those tax revenues help pay for a wide range of government services, including local school teachers, police departments and road repairs.

The CiTiRAMA public-private partnership also includes student training through the Cincinnati Community Action Commission’s “Blueprint for Success” initiative, a pre-apprenticeship construction training program that promotes self-sufficiency among the city’s youth.

Students from the Blueprint program are participating in the development of each of the new home sites in Bond Hill from start to finish and learning valuable new skills. 

Nielsen called the Blueprint program “one more way that Cincinnati’s home builders are contributing to their community, which will result in long-term economic benefits for all concerned.”

---

Promote National Homeownership Month With NAHB Resources

NAHB’s National Homeownership Month Promotional Kit has resources that highlight many of the incentives to buy that exist in the current market — affordable home prices, low interest rates, the large selection of homes for sale in all price ranges, and banks ready to loan to buyers with good credit.

The resources in the kit include:

Talking points on the benefits of homeownership

• A guide to using social media to promote National Homeownership Month
• National Homeownership Month radio spot scripts and website banner ads
• Consumer outreach materials — including a “Checklist for Finding and Hiring a Builder or Remodeler,” a “Top Reasons to Buy a Home” handout and articles on topics of interest to current and potential home owners.

The “Guide to Celebrating National Homeownership Month” is an ideal starting point for members and state and local associations to get ideas for events that can engage the media, city and county officials, local home buyers and other members of the community in celebrating homeownership.

The National Homeownership Month Promotional Kit is available to NAHB members and affiliated HBAs at www.nahb.org/homeownershipmonth.

For more information on the kit or any of NAHB’s public relations resources, email Gwyn Donohue at NAHB, or call her at 800-368-5242 x8447.