Nation's Building News Online: March 19, 2007Print All Articles Text Version |
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Builders Testify on Housing Finance System ReformNAHB testified before the Congress on March 15 on several solutions to enhance H.R. 1427, the Federal Housing Finance Reform Act of 2007, legislation that would strengthen the regulation of the housing government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks. The proposals would ensure the ongoing financial safety and soundness of the GSEs, while preserving the vitality of their government-sponsored status for the fulfillment of their vital housing mission. “With the introduction of H.R. 1427, NAHB is pleased to see a continuation of the ongoing bipartisan movement towards comprehensive GSE regulatory reform legislation,” Jerry Howard, NAHB CEO and executive vice president, told members of the House Financial Services Committee. Howard outlined NAHB’s position on six key elements of GSE reform:
“One, balance housing with safety and soundness concerns; two, employ capital as a precise instrument of risk management; three, preserve GSE portfolios as tools for achieving liquidity and affordable housing mission; four, maintain the GSEs’ flexibility to respond promptly, within their charters, to market needs; five, raise the conforming loan limit in high cost areas; and six, focus and enhance GSE benefits to expand affordable housing opportunities,” he said. Frank indicated that the House Financial Services Committee would like to mark up the legislation before the end of the month and bring the bill to the House floor in April. To read the legislation, click here and enter H.R. 1427 into the box at the center of the page. For more information, e-mail Scott Meyer at NAHB, or call him at 800-368-5242 x8144. ‘Buy Now’ Advertising Assistance Grants Going Fast. Apply Now.If your local association is currently engaged in an ongoing advertising campaign in print, radio or television outlets, or if you are planning such a campaign, have your association apply for a “Buy Now” advertising assistance grant from NAHB. HBAs from around the country have already applied. To date, 34 local associations have applied for advertising assistance grants from the $1 million to be awarded during the first phase of the program. NAHB currently has approved 19 requests totalling $584,000. Another $2 million will be made available if the program is successful. NAHB launched the multi-million dollar grant program last month to assist local home builders associations in an effort to bolster home sales in markets hit hard by the current housing downturn and help offset the cost of local ad campaigns. The NAHB “buy now” ad assistance program will provide grants to qualifying HBAs in three different categories:
To learn more about the program, eligibility considerations and requirements, click here (www.nahb.org/buynowapplication), or call Niki Clark at 800-368-5242 x806l. Some States Emerging From Housing Boom's Dark ShadowHousing markets with the biggest booms in 2004 and 2005 will generally be the slowest to return to normal levels of activity and those that showed more restraint will be the first to get back on track, according to a regional industry outlook for single-family production in 2007 and 2008 released by NAHB economists this week. The major exception is the Midwest, the hardest-hit region of the country where some key markets that have been languishing because of weak local economies aren’t likely to see brighter horizons until next year as job and income growth gradually improve. The report notes that the correction that started last year has affected different markets to different degrees, “but even markets with few signs of over-heating during the boom have slowed considerably.” “Nationally, the pace of housing starts in the fourth quarter of 2006 was down more than 29% from its peak in the third quarter of 2005,” the housing analysts say in an overview of their state and metro area housing starts forecast. “In local markets, half of the 100 largest metropolitan statistical areas that NAHB forecasts were down between 15% and 40% from their 2005 level of production, while some of the most severely affected markets were down 50% or more from their 2005 highs.” Nationally, NAHB is forecasting almost 1.2 million single-family housing starts in 2007, a 30.2% decline from a peak of almost 1.72 million in 2005, and 1.31 million in 2008, down 23.8%. Double-digit rates of house price appreciation in 2004 and 2005 on the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight's House Price Index (HPI) “clearly indicate markets out of balance,” the report notes. Metro areas with prices climbing the fastest between the fourth quarter of 2003 and the same period of 2005 include: Naples, Fla. (70.5%); Bakersfield, Calif. (70.3%); Palm Beach, Fla., (67.4%); Cape Coral, Fla. (66.4%); and Phoenix (63.5%). To analyze the extent of overheating in individual markets at the height of the boom, the economists compared the levels of starts in 2004 and 2005 to a “normal” level, which was calculated as the five-year average production level from 1999 through 2003. Some markets were in decline during the two-year boom period, producing fewer starts than the benchmark five-year average, the report finds. “But two-thirds of the 100 large metropolitan areas covered in this report produced more than 115% of this benchmark in 2005, while one half produced at least 120% of this pre-boom demand.” The economists attribute the unsustainable levels of excess demand to “historically low interest rates coupled with aggressive lending practices,” a combination that made homeownership more affordable and also attracted investors and speculators in many markets. “Because the boom and correction cycle has been largely driven by national rather than local factors, the housing market experience of 2004 through 2006 has been unusually similar in pattern and timing across regions of the country,” the report says. “While the regions differ somewhat in the level of peaks and troughs, some degree of over-heating and correction has affected all regions.” The South has fared the best through this cycle. Not only did it have the highest peak during the boom — 145% of normal demand — it also had the highest trough in the final quarter of 2006, when demand dropped to a roughly normal level. The West climbed to 143% of its pre-boom average, but then slipped to only 90% by the end of 2006. In the most compressed cycle of the nation’s four regions, the Northeast rose to 127% of average production at the peak and fell to 92% in the fourth quarter of 2006, a 35 percentage point swing. “The Midwest has fared the worst in this cycle, posting the lowest gain during the boom, only 116%, before falling to 68% of pre-boom production by 2006’s fourth quarter,” the report says. The following provides a closer outlook at the NAHB forecast for specific metropolitan areas:
For a free preview of the report, click here.
Is the Housing Correction Over? Attend Construction Forecast Conference Will housing demand outweigh affordability hurdles, inventory overhangs and the retreat of investors? Where are home prices headed? Get the answer to these and other questions at the Construction Forecast Conference — Spring 2007 on April 26 in Washington, D.C. Panels of nationally recognized experts will discuss economic trends, government policies, developments in the housing industry and the results from NAHB's recent surveys at the day-long conference. For more information and to register, click here. Can't Attend in Person? Webcast of Conference Also Available The conference is also available via Webcast. For Webcast information, visit www.nahb.org/cfcwebcast. Share Nation's Building News With Your Staff. It's Free.Make your business click. Subscribe your employees and trade partners to Nation's Building News — the free, online e-newspaper of NAHB. Each issue is filled with valuable news and information on every aspect of the home building industry — business and builders tips; the latest materials prices and mortgage interest rates; new technologies; cutting-edge design; state and federal regulations and how they affect the industy; and more. Information your entire company needs to stay ahead of your competitors. Forward this issue to your employees and trade partners and ask them to subscribe. Nation's Building News, it's free to them — invaluable to you. Don't delay, have your employees subscribe today. To subscribe, go to www.nahb.org/nbn. NAHB Kit Gives Builders Back-to-Basics Tips in Cooling Market With the current cooling of the nation’s housing market expected to persist into the middle of the year, NAHB has developed a comprehensive online toolkit geared to providing association members with information that will help them prosper in today’s changing business environment. To access the “Back to Basics” toolkit, you must be an NAHB member and have a login to www.nahb.org. To create a login, go to www.nahb.org/login or click on the log-in button on the main menu bar. For assistance, call the NAHB Member Service Center at 800-368-5242. Where the Wolf Comes Knocking: Areas Already in Economic Distress Feel Rise in Housing ForeclosuresSo far, the rising mortgage defaults that have panicked the financial markets have been concentrated in areas of the country already reeling from layoffs in the automobile industry and in hurricane-stricken states on the Gulf Coast. For those living in economically hard-hit areas, getting a loan from banks that specialize in “subprime” or risky mortgages was not an investment play or a way to get into an expensive home. It was often a matter of keeping families afloat as money got tight. Michigan has lost nearly 300,000 manufacturing jobs since 1999, with about half of those in the auto industry, according to state officials. And, while the rest of the country was recovering from the recession of 2001, Michigan’s economy sank into trouble. The loss of auto-related jobs “has been just devastating to our housing market,” said Dana Johnson, chief economist at Comerica Bank. “In other parts of the country, prices raced ahead of incomes. In Michigan, incomes fell away from housing prices.” Now, as the market for the riskiest types of loans collapses, the home owners holding such mortgages are the most likely to lose their homes, economists said. Whether the most troubled states are a sign of what is to come for the rest of the country will depend on what happens to the nation’s economy. While home-building and related industries are likely to shed more workers this year, most economists, including those at the Federal Reserve, have forecast that the economy will keep growing, albeit more sluggishly, propelled by job growth in health care, education, finance and other services. (www.washingtonpost)
Could This Robot Build a House in a Day?USG has decided to invest in Contour Crafting, a process in which a concrete mixture-depositing, bulky one-armed robot layers rows atop each other until a structure forms. The robot takes its orders from a computer, and prints the concrete onto the earth the way a printer lays down ink. An invention of Behrokh Khoshnevis, an engineering professor and director of the Center for Rapid Automated Fabrication Technologies at the University of Southern California, the first machines were small, table-top robots that took computer instruction to make shapes that resembled beehives, funnels or curvy vases. By 2004, he made a larger version able to build a wall. “It is very early, but I think we see that it could change how at least some buildings are done in developing parts of the world and in remote sites where you don’t want to bring in a lot of outside material,” says Dan Boss, associate director of the Discovery Group at USG’s Corporate Research and Technology Center. Khoshnevis says it could bring about a more sweeping change in the construction industry. “Eventually, this technology can be used to make single-residence structures, condos or high rises,” he says. “We are just at the beginning of an era in construction where full automation is going to be important.” And it could greatly reduce the cost of constructing a new home — perhaps by two-thirds. (www.cbsnews.com)
Manure: You May Be Walking on It SoonResearchers at Michigan State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture say that fiber from processed and sterilized cow manure could take the place of sawdust in making fiberboard, which is used to make everything from furniture to flooring to store shelves. The researchers hope it could be part of the solution to the nation’s 1.5-trillion- to 2-trillion-pound annual farm waste disposal problem. Under pressure from regulators and the public, more large livestock operations are installing expensive manure treatment systems known as anaerobic digesters, which use heat to deodorize and sterilize manure, while capturing and using the methane gas it produces to generate electricity. The systems also separate phosphorus-laden liquid fertilizer from semisolid plant residue. The solids have some known uses, such as for animal bedding and potting soil, but agricultural scientists would like to find more. In testing on various types of fiberboard made with the “digester solids,” the manure-based product is made the same as with the wood-based original by combining fibers with a chemical resin, then subjecting the mixture to heat and pressure. So far, fiberboard made with digester solids seems to match or beat the quality of wood-based products. And the manure-based fiber is “cheaper than dirt,” according to a consultant on the USDA lab’s research project. (www.usatoday.com)
A Concrete Step Toward Cleaner AirVisitors to the Italian Pavilion of the architecture exhibition in last fall’s Venice Biennale got a breath of fresh air because parts of the concrete walls and grounds were built with cement containing an active agent that, in the presence of light, breaks air pollutants such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, benzene and others through a natural process called photocatalysis. The technology, called TX Active, has been under development for almost 10 years in the labs of Italcementi, the world’s fifth-biggest cement producer, and is starting to be applied commercially to buildings and streets in France, Belgium and elsewhere. The results so far are astonishing: a street in the town of Segrate, near Milan, with average traffic of 1,000 cars per hour, has been repaved with the compound, “and we have measured a reduction in nitric oxides of around 60%,” says a spokesperson for the manufacturer. In a test over an approximately two-acre industrial area paved with active blocks near Bergamo, Italcementi’s hometown, the reduction was measured at 45%. Depending on specific atmospheric conditions, covering 15% of all visible urban surfaces — such as walls and roads — with products containing TX Active could abate pollution in a city like Milan by up to 50%, according to company and outside estimates. “To transform the façade of a five-story building into a photocatalytic surface would add only 100 or so euros to the cost of a traditional paint or plaster,” the company says. (www.businessweek.com)
FHA Comes to the Rescue of the Credit-ChallengedWith the subprime mortgage industry in free fall, the Federal Housing Administration is actually expanding its business nationwide for credit-impaired and first-time home purchasers. The agency recently has seen a doubling of customers refinancing out of private, subprime loans into its insured mortgage programs. The FHA doesn’t have problems with Wall Street investors who now see subprime mortgage bonds as toxic; its bonds, by contrast, are gilt-edged and backed by the federal government so there’s no shortage of mortgage money. Equally important, FHA-insured loans are more consumer-friendly than subprime and come with interest rates roughly three percentage points below directly comparable subprime loans. Among drawbacks to the loans: mortgage maximums top out at $363,000 in high-cost areas; 3% downpayments generally are required; borrowers are required to document their incomes; and there have never been “payment option” plans that allow borrowers to send in almost nothing every month while adding to their principal debt through negative amortization. Up until recently, the FHA’s share of the market withered while the private subprime market boomed because the FHA had developed a reputation for bureaucratic red tape, slow processing and excessive rules on mandatory repairs of properties before sale. The FHA also did not forge ties with the fast-growing mortgage brokerage industry, which now originates nearly two-thirds of all new home loans. But easy-money, no-questions-asked loans for people with bad credit habits are now the dodo birds of the mortgage market, and the FHA is taking steps to improve. (www.washingtonpost.com)
NextGen House Steals the ShowNot a thing of beauty, at least on the outside, the 2,700-square-foot NextGen House gave visitors to the International Builders’ Show a peak into the future of home construction. Just up the stairs, several cutaways allowed builders to see in action a hybrid heating and air conditioning system by Carrier that switches automatically from natural gas to electricity, depending on the outdoor temperature. Up on the roof, stone-coated, shake-like steel roofing panels made of 25% post-consumer recycled steel were interlocked to protect against earthquakes and 120-mile-an-hour winds. Among the crowd stoppers in the interior was the master suite, which was coated in Kelvar, the same material that is used in bullet-proof vests, so that it can function as a storm shelter. Another was the disappearing faucet by Delta, designed to save kitchen work-space. To get water, simply pull the inlaid joystick and the spout rises out of the countertop. When you’re done, push the control back and the spout retreats back out of the way. (www.realtytimes.com)
Tax Relief Aimed at Preserving Affordable HousingReps. Artur Davis (D-Ala.) and Jim Ramstad (R-Minn.) last week introduced H.R. 1491, the Affordable Housing Preservation Tax Relief Act of 2007. The legislation would provide relief from recapture or "exit" taxes at the time of sale of an affordable housing property in exchange for the property remaining affordable for 30 years. The bill is identical to to H.R. 3715, exit tax legislation introduced in the 109th Congress. For the past several years, NAHB has worked with a large coalition of housing organizations on this legislation, which is critical to the long-term preservation of affordable housing. NAHB is now working to secure cosponsors for the House bill and to seek introduction of a companion bill in the Senate as well as securing a budget score from the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) on the overall proposal. This JCT score will be critical to the viability of the legislation, especially under new congressional pay-as-you-go or “pay-go” rules that require offsets for any proposal that is a cost to the U.S. Treasury. To read the legislation, click here and enter H.R. 1491 in the box at the center of the page. For more information, e-mail Greg Brown at NAHB or call him at 800-368-5242 x8421. Bills Would Help Enlistees Qualify for Affordable HousingLegislation that would provide greater access to affordable housing for enlisted military personnel and their families was introduced in the House and Senate last week. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) introduced S. 839, the Military Access to Housing Act of 2007, legislation that would correct a technical anomaly in how income eligibility is calculated for enlisted military personnel who seek to qualify to live in a tax-credit home. This would be achieved by excluding military members’ housing allowances from their annual household income when qualifying them for the tax credit properties. Specifically, the measure would amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to exclude amounts received as a military basic housing allowance (BAH) from consideration as income for purposes of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) and qualified residential rental projects. Rep. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) introduced a companion bill in the House, H.R. 1481. These bills respond to high demand for affordable rental housing for enlisted military personnel around the country, especially in light of the ongoing Base Realignment and Closure process, which is shifting large numbers of military personnel to communities that don’t have enough affordable market-rate units available. Currently, enlisted military personnel (typically in the E-2 to E-5 range) are disqualified from LIHTC housing because the BAH is considered income, unlike Section 8 housing subsidies distributed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which are not. NAHB is now focusing on building co-sponsorship for both bills and raising their profile with the respective tax-writing committees. To view the legislation, click here and enter the respective bill numbers in the box at the center of the page. For more information, e-mail Greg Brown at NAHB or call him at 800-368-5242 x8421. Subprime Loan Uncertainties Erode Confidence of BuildersBuilder confidence in the market for new single-family homes has receded this month, largely on concerns about deepening problems in the subprime mortgage arena, according to the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI), which was released on March 19. After rising fairly steadily since its recent low last September, the HMI declined three points from a downwardly revised 39 reading in February to 36 in March. “Builders are uncertain about the consequences of tightening mortgage lending standards for their home sales down the line, and some are already seeing effects of the subprime shakeout on current sales activity,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Seiders. “The fundamentals of today’s housing market still are relatively strong, including a favorable interest-rate structure, solid growth in employment and household income, lower energy prices and improving affordability in much of the single-family market — due in part to price cuts and non-price sales incentives offered by builders. NAHB continues to forecast modest improvements in home sales during the balance of 2007, although the problems in the mortgage market increase the degree of uncertainty surrounding our baseline (i.e., most probable) forecast.” Derived from a monthly survey that NAHB has been conducting for 20 years, the NAHB/Wells Fargo HMI gauges builder perceptions of current single-family home sales, sales expectations for the next six months and traffic of prospective buyers. Scores for each component are used to calculate a seasonally adjusted index; any number over 50 indicates that more builders view sales conditions as good than poor. All three components of the index registered declines in March after having risen in the previous month. The index gauging current single-family home sales and the index gauging sales expectations for the next six months each declined three points, to 37 and 50, respectively. Meanwhile, the index gauging traffic of prospective buyers declined a single point, to 28. Regionally, the HMI results were somewhat mixed. In the Midwest and West, the index gained one point, rising to 28 and 36, respectively. In the Northeast, the HMI declined two points to 41, and in the South, it fell four points to 40.
Is the Housing Correction Over? Attend Construction Forecast Conference Will housing demand outweigh affordability hurdles, inventory overhangs and the retreat of investors? Where are home prices headed? Get the answer to these and other questions at the Construction Forecast Conference — Spring 2007 on April 26 in Washington, D.C. Panels of nationally recognized experts will discuss economic trends, government policies, developments in the housing industry and the results from NAHB's recent surveys at the day-long conference. For more information and to register, click here. Can't Attend in Person? Webcast of Conference Also Available The conference is also available via Webcast. For Webcast information, visit www.nahb.org/cfcwebcast. Eye on the Economy: Recession Not ImminentThe U.S. economy has been in a slow-growth mode since mid-2006 and that pattern is likely to persist during the first half of this year. The dramatic contraction in housing production (Residential Fixed Investment) exerted the strongest drag on GDP growth during the second half of last year and that pattern is sure to be repeated in the first quarter of 2007. But we expect the housing drag to ease off in the second quarter, and we’re projecting positive contributions to GDP growth from RFI during the second half of the year. Uncertainties about the impacts of the ongoing housing “correction” on the economy, including a weaker housing wealth effect on consumer spending and fallout from the evolving subprime mortgage debacle, have energized speculation about economic recession in the latter part of this year. Alan Greenspan, the former Fed chairman, recently put a one-third probability on recession in 2007 at the same time that the current Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke, was expressing confidence in the resilience of the U.S. economy. We stand closer to Bernanke, putting a 20% probability on recession in 2007, although uncertainties surrounding the outlook for housing finance and the housing supply-demand balance are formidable. Subprime Mortgage Market Moves to Center Stage The subprime mortgage market, once a small and innocuous component of the huge U.S. housing finance system, grew rapidly during the housing boom and now has stormed to center stage — spewing forth ugly images that have shocked a broad swath of financial markets. It’s now clear that lending standards in this market deteriorated badly during the frenetic housing boom of 2004-2005 and deteriorated even further while the housing market was heading downhill last year. Subprime lenders recently have been going out of business in rapid succession and revelations of fraudulent behavior have been surfacing. These cases often involve unregulated mortgage brokers, and the Financial Crimes section of the FBI now is on the job. The meltdown of the subprime mortgage market definitely is a serious matter for the U.S. housing market, promising to add to a heavy inventory overhang (via foreclosures) and to reduce home sales (via tighter lending standards) at a time when lingering affordability problems still are quite serious. But the bigger threat is spread of the infection upward — into the Alt-A and prime components of the mortgage market. Recently released data on mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures for the final quarter of 2006 show substantial deterioration in the subprime market and some deterioration in the rest of the market — presumably concentrated in the Alt-A component where interest-only ARMs with little or no documentation of borrower income/assets proliferated during the boom. About the only saving grace in this story is a flight to quality in financial markets that promises to push rates on prime mortgages below earlier projections for 2007 — as long as credit quality spreads to comparable-maturing Treasury securities hold firm. Economic Concerns and Financial Market Turmoil Push Interest Rates Downward Growing concerns about the durability of the economic expansion, combined with the meltdown of the subprime mortgage market and related turmoil in the stock market, have sent huge amounts of funds to the safe haven of the Treasury securities markets. As a result, yields on these risk-free instruments have been driven downward to levels not seen for some time. Prime mortgage rates also have come down in the process as spreads to Treasuries have been reasonably stable. The Fed still is anchoring the short end of the yield structure, holding the federal funds rate target at the 5.25% level established at mid-2006. However, yields on short-term Treasury securities have been compressed recently, widening spreads to the funds rate. It’s clear that market participants have just about written off any chance of Fed tightening this year, and bets on Fed easing in 2007 are accumulating. Our forecast still calls for a quarter-point cut in the federal funds rate at mid-year. The Fed certainly could react earlier, and more often, if the shocks from financial markets — including widening of credit-risk spreads — threaten an already subpar pace of economic growth. The Erosion of Housing Demand May Not Yet Be Over Published data on sales of new and existing homes through January, including “pending” sales of existing homes, suggest that the abrupt downward corrections from the late-2005 peaks essentially ran their course by late last year. But it’s always tough to identify true turning points during the winter months, and some recent data for February and the early part of March suggest that further erosion of housing demand may be in store — apparently related to fallout from the subprime mortgage debacle. The Mortgage Bankers Association’s weekly series on applications for mortgages to buy homes (available through the week ending March 9) had been showing substantial improvements from the low points last fall, but a disturbing pattern of deterioration has emerged since late January. NAHB’s Baseline Forecast Still Shows an Unfolding Housing Recovery NAHB’s baseline (most-probable) forecast for home sales, house prices, housing starts and Residential Fixed Investment in 2007 and 2008 has been revised downward slightly, reflecting recent housing market data as well as the anticipated net impact of tighter mortgage lending standards and lower interest rates on prime mortgages (both fixed- and adjustable-rate). We’re now projecting 1.5 million housing starts for 2007 (equivalent to the March Blue Chip consensus) followed by a rebound to 1.64 million in 2008 — above the consensus estimate of 1.57 million. It’s certainly fair to say that the range of uncertainty around our baseline housing forecast has widened considerably in recent weeks, and it probably will take several months to get a firm handle on the net impacts of the unfolding mortgage market saga. We know that underlying housing demand fundamentals — primarily demographic trends — are solid, but we also know that there are major inventory and affordability hurdles to clear and that the subprime mortgage market mess is working against us on both fronts. The implications for household balance sheets must also be considered. House Price Slowdown and Mortgage Debt Buildup Are Taking a Toll on Household Balance Sheets The market value of homes owned by U.S. households rose by 6.3% during 2006 to a record $20.6 trillion at year end — according to recent Federal Reserve estimates. The “holding gains” (excluding net purchases) came to 4.8% over the course of 2006, down from 10.7% in 2005. The annualized holding gain for the fourth quarter of last year was down to 3.0%, reflecting the progressive deceleration of national house price appreciation from peak rates recorded in the latter part of 2005. Home mortgage debt rose by 8.9% during 2006, down from the extraordinarily rapid rates of 2004 and 2005, but still quite robust. Household equity in homes rose by 4.0% over the course of the year to a record $10.95 trillion at year end, although the annualized gain came to less than 2% for the fourth quarter. Furthermore, the debt-to-value ratio moved up to 46.9% by the end of 2006, continuing the upward trend of recent years. The weakening of house prices is likely to continue during 2007, causing housing wealth and housing equity to stagnate, and possibly even decline, and the debt-to-value ratio is destined to rise somewhat further. While not alarming, these developments inevitably detract from the investment aspects of homeownership and reduce the degree of support provided to consumer spending by housing wealth accumulation. NAHB Chief Economist David Seiders analyzes the economy from the point of view of the housing market every other week in the free e-newsletter, “Eye on the Economy.” The preceding is a reissue of his March 14 edition. To subscribe to “Eye on the Economy,” click here. Is the Housing Correction Over? Attend Construction Forecast Conference Will housing demand outweigh affordability hurdles, inventory overhangs and the retreat of investors? Where are home prices headed? Get the answer to these and other questions at the Construction Forecast Conference — Spring 2007 on April 26 in Washington, D.C. Panels of nationally recognized experts will discuss economic trends, government policies, developments in the housing industry and the results from NAHB's recent surveys at the day-long conference. For more information and to register, click here. Can't Attend in Person? Webcast of Conference Also Available The conference is also available via Webcast. For Webcast information, visit www.nahb.org/cfcwebcast. Want to Know the Housing Starts Through 2015? Find out in HousingEconomics.com’s Long-Term Forecast. HousingEconomics.com includes downloadable Excel tables featuring the housing starts forecast, GDP, demographics and more. To learn more, visit www.housingeconomics.com. NAHB Kit Gives Builders Back-to-Basics Tips in Cooling Market With the current cooling of the nation’s housing market expected to persist into the middle of the year, NAHB has developed a comprehensive online toolkit geared to providing association members with information that will help them prosper in today’s changing business environment. To access the “Back to Basics” toolkit, you must be an NAHB member and have a login to www.nahb.org. To create a login, go to www.nahb.org/login or click on the log-in button on the main menu bar. For assistance, call the NAHB Member Service Center at 800-368-5242. Useful Links to Monitor Economic and Housing TrendsThe following are links to useful information from government agencies and NAHB that will enable you to monitor the housing market. To access the latest information available, simply click the links.
Is the Housing Correction Over? Attend Construction Forecast Conference Will housing demand outweigh affordability hurdles, inventory overhangs and the retreat of investors? Where are home prices headed? Get the answer to these and other questions at the Construction Forecast Conference — Spring 2007 on April 26 in Washington, D.C. Panels of nationally recognized experts will discuss economic trends, government policies, developments in the housing industry and the results from NAHB's recent surveys at the day-long conference. For more information and to register, click here. Can't Attend in Person? Webcast of Conference Also Available The conference is also available via Webcast. For Webcast information, visit www.nahb.org/cfcwebcast.
Want to Know the Housing Starts Through 2015? Find out in HousingEconomics.com’s Long-Term Forecast. HousingEconomics.com includes downloadable Excel tables featuring the housing starts forecast, GDP, demographics and more. To learn more, visit www.housingeconomics.com. NAHB Kit Gives Builders Back-to-Basics Tips in Cooling Market With the current cooling of the nation’s housing market expected to persist into the middle of the year, NAHB has developed a comprehensive online toolkit geared to providing association members with information that will help them prosper in today’s changing business environment. To access the “Back to Basics” toolkit, you must be an NAHB member and have a login to www.nahb.org. To create a login, go to www.nahb.org/login or click on the log-in button on the main menu bar. For assistance, call the NAHB Member Service Center at 800-368-5242. Builders' Tip: Making A Grit-Free Cap for Pneumatic Tools
As I was trying out a new nailer, it occurred to me that the nailer would probably last longer if I just could keep dirt and grit out of its innards while the tool wasn’t in use. So, I decided to make some plastic caps to cover the nailer’s hose coupling.
I’ve even used them to cap tubes of partially-used caulk. By the way, filling the cap with the appropriate solvent before slipping it onto the caulk nozzle will prevent the caulk from hardening. — Ted Vish, Weaverville, N. C. Tips & Techniques provided by Fine Homebuilding.
To request a reprint of this feature, e-mail Christina Glennon at Fine Homebuilding.
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Free NAHB Kit Gives Builders Back-to-Basics Tips in Cooling Market With the current cooling of the nation’s housing market expected to persist into the middle of the year, NAHB has developed a comprehensive online toolkit geared to providing association members with information that will help them prosper in today’s changing business environment. To access the “Back to Basics” toolkit, you must be an NAHB member and have a login to www.nahb.org. To create a login, go to www.nahb.org/login or click on the log-in button on the main menu bar on the NAHB Web site. For assistance, call the NAHB Member Service Center at 800-368-5242. Vintage Bathtub Folds Up Like a Murphy BedInnovation has always been a watchword for home builders. Be it the latest in luxurious bathroom furnishings and kitchen appliances or closet organizers and skylights, home buyers want the newest and the best. And America’s home builders have always strived to provide it. But that wasn’t always as easy as it is today. Lacking the International Builders’ Show, cable networks solely devoted to housing and home building and, of course, the Internet, how did builders learn about innovative new products? One important source was the Manufacturer and Builder magazine, now archived in cyberspace by the Cornell University library, which showcased a folding bathtub and water heater in its February 1891 issue. Similar in concept to a Murphy bed, the folding bathtub and heater was described as an “ingenious domestic sanitary invention.” When closed, the author said, it looked like “a wardrobe of pleasing appearance” and was a “compact arrangement” occupying a 4-by-3-by-2-foot space. Inside were “all of the essentials for a comfortable bath” — the tub, the water heater and a porcelain-enclosed space for drying towels. In comparison, today’s standard bathtub is larger at about five feet long. The cabinet was designed to be attached to a wall, and after the cabinet was opened and the tub was lowered to the floor, a circular gas jet would heat water for the tub. Emptying the tub involved using a rubber hose to funnel the bath water into the household waste-pipe. While it probably wouldn’t appeal to today’s consumers, the folding bathtub and water heater concept did appear to appeal to people of that era. An advertisement for a similar bathtub made by the Mosely Folding Bath Tub Company of Chicago reprinted in the online Encyclopedia of Chicago notes that the product was designed to put “the comforts of a modern bathroom within the reach of every family.” According to the ad, the folding bathtub apparently won first prize in an 1892 competition sponsored by the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association. It was also displayed at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. And just for the record, at least one survives to this day. It’s on eBay. Courtesy of Cornell University Library, Making of America Digital Collection
Design Matters. Register Now for the BALA Design Institute In a competitive market, design can be the difference. At the NAHB/BALA Design Institute for Builders, the only design conference specifically for building industry professionals, you'll learn the latest in residential housing design trends from the industry's top professionals, tour beautiful award-winning homes and communities that display the best in cutting-edge architectural design, and learn how to profitably apply these design ideas to the homes you build. The Design Institute will be held June 25-27 in Bellevue, Wash. (near Seattle) To register and for more information, visit www.nahb.org/designinstitute. King Kong Would Recognize America’s Favorite Building
The Empire State Building and the White House top the list of America’s Favorite Architecture in a poll by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) asking members of the general public how much they liked 248 pre-selected structures around the country. Famous homes, public buildings, sports arenas, transportation hubs and office buildings were among the structures on the list of candidates. Seventeen of the projects ranked on a final list of 150 favorite buildings are located in Washington, D.C., and include the U.S. Supreme Court (15th) and the Library of Congress (28th). Washington’s public buildings and memorials dominated the top 10 list, but New York City easily led the list for the sheer number of its structures in the top 150. Chicago is well represented with 16, including Wrigley Field (31st), the Sears Tower (42nd), the Tribune Tower (38th) and the Field Museum (52nd). The list presents a broad swath of architectural styles from diverse periods of American history. Buildings and structures represent where Americans live, such as Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater (29th) in Pennsylvania; where they vacation, such as the Hotel Del Coronado (18th) in San Diego; and where they escape to have fun, such as Baltimore’s Oriole Park at Camden Yard (122nd) and the Ingalls Ice Arena (149th) at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. Transportation hubs and structures on the list of favorites include The Golden Gate (fifth) and Brooklyn (20th) bridges, as well as many main rail stations, including Cincinnati Union Terminal (44th), Union Station in St. Louis (40th) and Union Station in Kansas City (127th). Following are the top 10 buildings and their architects:
How to Overcome NIMBY Opposition to Your ProjectThe public record is crammed with postcards, petitions and letters in opposition to your project. The room is packed with shouting, placard-waving opponents. Public officials seem reluctant to establish eye contact with you and agency staff continues to insist that you "do something" about community opposition. What do you do? Opposition or Support? When facing community resistance, you must first determine how public opinion — public support and opposition — affects the political decisions about your project, and then plan an appropriate course of action. Do you need to reduce neighborhood opposition? Would it be more effective to simply mobilize supporters to attend a hearing? Or should you do both? The distinction between community opposition and community support is critical. Your potential supporters are a totally different audience than your opponents, and supporters won't be moved by the same messages that influence detractors. Rather than wasting your resources with an overly-expansive community outreach program, you need to diagnose your primary community relations needs at the outset of the development process. Four Causes of Opposition Let's assume that you need to reduce the number of opponents to your project, or, at a minimum, reduce the intensity of their hostility so that they stay home rather than show up at your planning or zoning board hearing. Given that many outreach tactics can actually generate more community opposition than might already exist, you should focus your community relations program as sharply as possible so you don’t create even more hostility. Citizens generally oppose land use projects for one of four reasons, and each requires a different community outreach response.
You do have several tools you can use to help change people’s minds and build support for your project:
All community opposition is not alike and the wrong type of outreach response can create more problems than it solves. But by carefully diagnosing the cause of opposition and planning and putting into action an outreach program specifically tailored to respond to that cause, you can reduce citizen opposition to your project. Debra Stein is the president of the San Francisco-based public affairs firm, GCA Strategies. She is the author of several books on NIMBYism and her firm specializes in controversial land use projects across the nation. For more information, e-mail Stein, call her at 415-391-4100 or visit the GCA Strategies Web site at www.gcastrategies.com. Austin ‘McMansion’ Ordinance Squeezes Home OwnersResponding to a local “McMansion” ordinance that went into effect last fall restricting the size of housing, the Home Builders Association of Greater Austin last week released the results of an impact study substantiating how the new regulation will drastically increase costs for home owners at the same time as it takes a big toll on economic activity within the city’s limits. The ordinance is increasing the cost of new homes and remodeling projects, makes improvements difficult to finance and limits the ability of home owners to sell their property, according to Impact DataSource, an Austin-based economic research and analysis firm. Also troubling, the study concluded that the ordinance will reduce the dollars pumped into the Austin economy and its job creation. “The new residential standards make urban projects more complicated and more expensive,” said Jerry Walker, principal of Impact DataSource. “Regulations could add as much as $75,500 to the cost of remodeling and constructing a new residence in the affected area, further pushing middle-income residents to areas outside of Austin and contradicting the city’s stated urban density goals. Young home owners trying to upgrade or move to large houses to accommodate their growing families are getting squeezed the worst.” The city ordinance limits development plans for owners of lots in six specific zones and 48 neighborhoods. The study evaluated the impact of the restrictions on four properties, demonstrating an average loss of $229,888 of real property improvements, a $5,806 annual loss to local taxing districts per property and reduction in possible construction to an average of $451,375 per property. In total, of a possible 110 similar infill redevelopment properties listed for sale on Oct. 31, 2006, improvements not added to tax rolls could equal $25.2 million. Home owners would lose $12.8 million in their share of actual and projected market value, resulting in a further loss of $638,614 in annual tax revenues from these properties. In one of the four properties, the ordinance has created uncertainty for the purchaser of a $165,000 lot who planned to construct a duplex on the property that would then be converted to two condominium units. The ordinance has reduced the size of the allowable first unit from 1,775 to 1,287 square feet and has imposed a similar limitation on the second unit. The total buildable square footage for the project has been reduced by 1,095 square feet — from 3,642 to 2,547 square feet, increasing construction costs from $150 to $160 and the project cost from $195 to $225 on a square foot basis. The estimated gross sales price for the project drops from $711,000 to $572,000 — a loss of $210,000. The research also concludes that home owners will find it difficult to sell lots that are smaller than 10,000 square feet. “Classic 50-foot by 125-foot properties in areas such as Hyde Park have a high value for land and smaller proportionate values for current improvements,” Walker said. “A potential buyer will find it difficult to obtain financing because lenders require a traditional relationship of a small value for land and a large value for improvements.” “In the end, this is about property rights,” said Eric Perkins, president of the HBA. “A city shouldn’t be able to decrease the value of your property or increase the difficulty to sell it as a result of legislating ‘good taste.’” To read the study, click here, or call 512-454-5588. San Diego Web Site Gives Buyers an EdgeA new online resource to help potential home buyers take advantage of the current buyer’s market was launched recently by the Building Industry Association of San Diego and the San Diego Association of Realtors®. The new site (sandiegohomeownership.com) provides consumers with valuable information about the housing market and how to buy a home in San Diego. It is part of the BIA’s ongoing “Campaign for California Homeownership,” which was created in 2005 to help promote public policies that help increase homeownership opportunities for all Californians. “Housing market conditions have changed, and there is a significant amount of confusion in the marketplace” from widely diverging viewpoints of economists and the media, said Scott Brusseau, president of the BIA. The new Web site, he said, “provides neutral information in a consumer-friendly manner to ease that confusion. Hopefully, this will help San Diegans make sound decisions about purchasing a home locally.” “San Diego’s economy is strong and diverse, with a low unemployment rate,” said David Cabot, president of the San Diego Realtors®. “Interest rates are still near historic lows and there are a variety of homes of all types available. Homeownership is a cornerstone of the American way of life. The general public has more access to information about the home buying process and Realtors® are available to guide consumers through this major life transaction.” The “Making the Buyer’s Market Work for You” campaign by the two groups also includes local radio and television spots that promote the benefits of homeownership and direct consumers to the Web site. The Web site includes links to home builders and free new-home locating services. Subscribe to Sales + Marketing Ideas Magazine for Cutting-Edge Information For additional cutting-edge sales and marketing information, subscribe to NAHB’s Sales + Marketing Ideas magazine (www.smimagazine.com). Click here to learn about membership benefits of the National Sales and Marketing Council and the Institute of Residential Marketing.
‘Building Your Home: An Insider’s Guide’ Available at BuilderBooks.com “Building Your Home: An Insider’s Guide,” available through BuilderBooks.com, gives home buyers who are planning to build a new home first-hand, up-to-date information about what to expect, the questions they need to ask, and the opportunities and options available at each stage of the building process. To view or purchase this publication online, click here, or call 800-223-2665.
Earn Valuable Sales and Marketing Designations Through IRM Programs The Institute of Residential Marketing (IRM) offers four designation programs for sales and marketing professionals:
Want to Know More? Ask an Expert You also can ask designation holders questions about obtaining a designation, specific courses, case studies and more. "Ask An Expert" is available on the NAHB Web site by clicking here. NAHB IBS Show Home Exterior Eats Smog, Is Self-Cleaning
The new photocatalytic cement technology used for the exterior of the 2007 New American Home on display at the International Builders’ Show (IBS) in Orlando, Fla. earlier this year eats smog and decomposes the air-borne microorganisms that would soil its façade, giving the home a self-cleaning exterior. Under development for almost a decade by Italcementi, the world’s fifth-biggest cement producer, TX Active, the photocatalytic technology used on The New American Home, looks like traditional cement-based stucco walls. TX Active blends the admixtures TX Arca cement and TX Aria, a binder for paints, mortars, plasters and renders, into a traditional cement mix. Both admixtures have pollution-eating properties. TX Arca destroys pollutants that come into direct contact with the material and keep the building’s surface area clean, without the need for cleaning agents or other building maintenance. TX Aria breaks down airborne pollutants, such as smog, that pollute the air around the surface of the building. TX Active will not only reduce maintenance to limit the overall energy footprint, it will reduce the pollution in the air around the home. When used on streets in Italy, TX Active has reduced nitric oxide on those streets by 60%.
Other Cement-Based Benefits in The New American Home Concrete and cement-based products and technologies have been widely used in every New American Home at IBS for the last four years. Their use this year has resulted in a wide array of energy-efficient and sustainable design elements that streamlined the construction process, created economies in long-term maintenance and did not compromise the home’s aesthetics. The products used in the 2007 home and their benefits include: Insulated Precast Concrete — Increased Energy Efficiency The backbone of The New American Home is an insulated precast concrete wall system that provides the structure of the home with a solid thermal envelope. Operating The New American Home will require less overall energy for heating and cooling, significantly reducing the environmental footprint of the building over its life cycle. Compared to wood and steel, concrete structures allow minimal temperature fluctuations due to concrete's high thermal mass. Because of its properties, the heating, ventilating and air-conditioning systems were designed with smaller-capacity equipment, saving money and resources. To provide additional insulation, a continuous layer of Styrofoam was sandwiched between precast slabs throughout the structure for optimal energy performance. Fiber-Cement Siding — Won’t Rot, Warp or Buckle
This sustainable application of cement-based materials has the appearance of wood, but none of the maintenance drawbacks of traditional wood siding. Now used in about 10% of residential home building, fiber-cement siding will not rot, buckle or warp; is resistant to termites and fire; and has been proven to hold paint for a longer duration than wood siding. Tighter Tolerances, Less Waste, Less On-Site Labor Because precast concrete walls are built in factories and then shipped to job sites, they are manufactured using more precise mixture proportions and result in tighter tolerances, fit and finish. The manufacturing process also significantly reduces the amount of waste in the construction process and speeds up wall construction. Less labor is required, compared with traditional wood framing. This combination of benefits can reduce the overall cost of homes using precast concrete walls. Read More About TX Active For more information about TX Active, read the article, “TX Active, the new photocatalytic cement technology for self-cleaning and pollution-reducing concrete, now available in North America,” by ESSROC, a leading cement producer based in Nazareth, Pa. and part of the Italcementi group. Photos by James F. Wilson Attend the Concrete Technologies Tour on May 6-8 The latest advances in concrete construction, production, materials and design will be showcased at the 2007 Concrete Home Building Council Concrete Technologies Tour in Minneapolis on May 6-8. The tour will feature educational programs, networking and behind-the-scenes tours of six cement-based building materials and manufacturing facilities. To Register For more information and to register, visit www.nahb.org/concretetour. ‘Concrete at Home’ Available at BuilderBooks.com “Concrete at Home,” available through BuilderBooks.com, offers tips on incorporating concrete architectural elements such as counters, sinks, columns and water pieces into a project. To view or purchase this publication online, click here, or call 800-223-2665.
Attend the 2007 National Green Building Conference Attend the 2007 National Green Building Conference in St. Louis on March 25-27. The conference includes educational sessions on construction, the environment, conservation, energy, recycling, finance and marketing — with real world applications. In addition, there will be a green building/technology tour of green building projects in the St. Louis area. Onsite registration is available. Click here for conference information, or visit www.nahb.org/greenbuilding on the NAHB Web site to learn more about green building. NAHB Offers Educational Resources for ConcreteThe NAHB University of Housing has developed new resources for members who want to learn more about concrete. The resources and educational opportunities are available through local home builders associations. They include: FEMA Mitigation Course The Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), the Portland Cement Association and the Home Builders Institute (HBI) — the workforce development arm of NAHB — have developed a FEMA mitigation course to assist superintendents working on FEMA projects. Concrete Track for Designations and Credentials The NAHB University of Housing is offering a series of concrete-related courses through local HBAs that are approved for credit toward HBI’s Residential Site Supervisor credential as well as continuing education credit for the CAPS, CGA, CGB, CGR, GMB, CSP, Master CSP, CMP and MIRM designations. The courses are easy for HBAs to implement and include a list of NAHB-approved instructors. For information about course sponsorships, e-mail Steve Kramer at HBI, or call him at 800-795-7955. New Concrete Courses in Developments Two new concrete courses — Fiber Cement Siding and Post-Tension Concrete — are under development and expected to be launched with pilot classes late this year. High School, Two-Year Colleges to Use HBI Concrete Construction Textbook HBI, with help from members of the Concrete Home Building Council, has developed a new textbook for Thompson Del Mar Learning, “Masonry, Brick and Block Construction.” Thompson Delmar Learning is one of the world’s largest trade publishers. “Masonry, Brick and Block Construction” will be available in the fall and marketed to high school and two-year college programs and available through Thompson Delmar Learning’s Web site, ResidentialAcademy.com.
Attend the Concrete Technologies Tour on May 6-8 The latest advances in concrete construction, production, materials and design will be showcased at the 2007 Concrete Home Building Council Concrete Technologies Tour in Minneapolis on May 6-8. The tour will feature educational programs, networking and behind-the-scenes tours of six cement-based building materials and manufacturing facilities. To Register For more information and to register, visit www.nahb.org/concretetour.
‘Concrete at Home’ Available at BuilderBooks.com “Concrete at Home,” available through BuilderBooks.com, offers tips on incorporating concrete architectural elements such as counters, sinks, columns and water pieces into a project. To view or purchase this publication online, click here, or call 800-223-2665. Market Realities, Emerging Trends at Pillars Conference
The changing market realities, emerging trends, best practices and cutting-edge information needed to stay ahead of the curve in the multifamily market will be discussed at the Multifamily Pillars of the Industry Conference and Awards Gala, the premier industry event for the multifamily industry, on April 11-13 at the Westin Diplomat Resort and Spa in Hollywood, Fla. Registration is open and the advanced registration deadline is Friday, March 23. The market realities and trends to be discussed include:
For more information about these sessions and more, and to register, visit www.nahb.org/pillarsconference. NAHB Remodelers Enter Rulemaking Advocacy FraySeeing a need to stem the rise in local and national rules and regulations that directly and adversly affect the remodeling industry, the NAHB Remodelers (formerly the NAHB Remodelors™ Council) has begun an effort to push for more balanced rules governing lead paint, fire sprinklers, green remodeling, adapted housing, the tax code and other issues. While NAHB advocates on these and other issues on behalf of the entire building industry, the NAHB Remodelers formally stepped up its involvement in the rulemaking process with the creation of a new legislative and regulatory affairs committee at NAHB’s recent board meeting during the International Builders’ Show in Orlando, Fla. Greg Miedema, CGR, CAPS, of Dakota Builders in Tucson, Ariz., was named committee chair. At its first meeting, the committee discussed issues of major concern to remodelers that NAHB is currently working on, and what NAHB Remodelers can do to support the association’s advocacy efforts. The issues include:
To learn more about the NAHB Remodelers advocacy efforts, e-mail Jim Lapides at NAHB, or call him at 800-368-5242 x8451. New Award Recognizes Aging-in-Place Remodeling ProjectsNAHB Remodelers has created the new Homes for Life Award to recognize remodeling projects that enable residents to age in place. Eligibility for the awards is limited to CAPS (Certified Aging-in-Place) designees, and their projects can have been completed at any time in the past. Current judges of the awards are not allowed to submit entries. The deadline for entries is Sept. 3. To enter, submit the application page with all pertinent company information, along with a $50 entry fee. There are four parts to the entry requirements:
For more information on the award or to download an application, e-mail Ellen Higgins at NAHB, or call her at 800-368-5242 x8323. CAPS Designation Focuses on Accessibility at Any Age Developed by the NAHB Remodelers in collaboration with AARP, the NAHB Research Center and NAHB's 50+ Housing Council, the Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist (CAPS) program provides comprehensive, practical, market-specific information about working with older and maturing adults to remodel their homes for aging-in-place. For more information, e-mail CAPSinfo@nahb.org, or visit www.nahb.org/CAPSinfo. Apply for the NAHB Remodeler of the Month AwardThrough the Remodeler of the Month award, the NAHB Remodelers are honoring remodelers who demonstrate strong business practices, community service or industry involvement through the Remodeler of the Month award. Winners will be featured in Qualified Remodeler magazine and in Nation’s Building News. To qualify:
How Does Your Remodeling Business Measure Up? The “Remodelers’ Cost of Doing Business Study,” available through BuilderBooks.com, is a comprehensive assessment of the growth and viability of the remodeling industry that enables remodelers to see how their business stacks up against the competition. Conducted by the NAHB Economics Group and the NAHB Remodelers, the study provides a statistically accurate analysis of the remodeling industry in terms of size, profitability, time in the business, business organization and staffing. The study allows remodelers to compare key business statistics, such as gross and net profit margins, against results from the most successful remodelers. To order the “Remodelers’ Cost of Doing Business Study” online, click here, or call 800-223-2665. Earn a Certified Graduate Remodeler Professional Designation Certified Graduate Remodeler (CGR) is an exclusive professional designation designed to emphasize business management skills as the key to a professional remodeling operation. For more information, e-mail CGRinfo@nahb.org, or visit www.nahb.org/CGRinfo. Education Calendar
Learn More About The NAHB University of Housing Whether you’re new to the industry, hope to make your next career move or want to improve your company’s bottom line, The NAHB University of Housing can assist you in your educational pursuits. Visit www.nahb.org/education for a comprehensive listing of courses throughout the country. Be sure to visit often in order to view the most up-to-date information in your area. NAHB Kit Gives Builders Back-to-Basics Tips in Cooling Market With the current cooling of the nation’s housing market expected to persist into the middle of the year, NAHB has developed a comprehensive online toolkit geared to providing association members with information that will help them prosper in today’s changing business environment. To access the “Back to Basics” toolkit, you must be an NAHB member and have a login to www.nahb.org. To create a login, go to www.nahb.org/login or click on the log-in button on the main menu bar on the NAHB Web site. For assistance, call the NAHB Member Service Center at 800-368-5242. Bank of America Initiative to Address Climate ChangeOn March 6, Bank of America Corporation announced a $20 billion initiative to support the growth of environmentally sustainable business activity to address global climate change. The company said that its 10-year initiative will encourage the development of environmentally sustainable business practices through lending, investing, philanthropy and the creation of new products and services. Opportunities to support its customers’ efforts to build an environmentally sustainable economy include innovative home and office construction, new manufacturing technology, changes in transportation and new ways to supply energy, according to Kenneth D. Lewis, Bank of America’s chairman and CEO. Provisions related to the home building industry include:
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