NBN Online for the week of April 17, 2006

Multifamily Housing Demand on a Long-Term Upswing

Baby boomer lifestyle changes, immigration, housing affordability and the “non-traditional” composition of households are among factors that will contribute to robust demand for multifamily rental and for-sale housing for several decades, according to industry experts and economists addressing the Pillars of the Industry conference in Phoenix earlier this month.

“Housing demand will stay strong for the next 20 years,” said economist James Smith, of the Center for Business Forecasting at the Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Baby boomers are just beginning to enter the peak homeownership age brackets of 65-69 and 70-74, Smith said, and many will be seeking home buying opportunities in the multifamily market, which is well suited to meeting the needs and desires of empty nesters and smaller households.

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Arizona’s Pygmy Owl Struck From Endangered Species List

An announcement last Thursday that the pygmy owl will be removed from the federal list of endangered species will enable the government to direct its limited resources toward species that are more in need of protection, according to NAHB. The decision is effective May 15.

“As home builders, we want to protect species when they are endangered, but this was clearly not the case for pygmy owls,” said NAHB President David Pressly. “This decision is a victory for sound science and for affordable housing.”

The action by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ended more than nine years of legal wrangling over the status of the pygmy owl, which flourishes just across the border in Mexico but also includes a small population in Arizona, the northernmost edge of the bird’s range. Officials proposed setting aside 1.2 million acres of critical habit for the 18 solitary pygmy owls found in the state in 2002.