NBN Online for the week of April 16, 2007

In a Down Housing Market, Green Demand Exceeds Supply

With housing production continuing to run cool as builders work down their unsold inventories of homes, green building and remodeling is one corner of the marketplace where demand is riding higher than the available supply, participants in an NAHB teleconference said on April 16.

Recent surveys by McGraw-Hill Construction among green home buyers and home owners who have undertaken remodeling jobs find a strong sentiment among consumers that there “are not enough green builders out there and demand is exceeding the homes available,” with the shortfall particularly pronounced in the East, said Harvey Bernstein, the company’s vice president of industry analytics, alliances and strategic initiatives.

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Lumber Prices Provided by Random Lengths

Design the Crucial Factor in Effective Green Building

Instead of worrying about offbeat construction materials and techniques, home builders interested in pursuing green home building opportunities should start by considering basic designs — many of which have been around for ages — that will promote the peak performance of the house, Peter Pfeiffer, of Barley & Pfeiffer Architects in Austin, Texas, told the NAHB National Green Building Conference in St. Louis last month.

“This is not about bamboo floors and geothermal heat pumps,” Pfeiffer said, “but the first decisions we make even before we begin building. Let’s make some smart design decisions first….Green building is less about finding materials and more about the appropriateness of the design.”

Make Sure Your HBA Is Committed to Membership Day

This year, membership analysts predict that NAHB’s upcoming National Membership Day on Tuesday, May 22 could bring in more than 10,000 new members. During the day, more prizes will be awarded to successful recruiters than ever before, thanks to Whirlpool, NAHB’s exclusive membership sponsor.

Members of participating local home builders associations that participate are eligible to win a Chill and Grill Travel Cooler, receive double Spike credits during the month of May and become eligible to rank in national membership competitions for recruitment, retention and participation.

To be eligible for these incentives, members must belong to a local association that:

• Has completed the “Commit to Call” and faxed it to NAHB by Friday, May 4. Free temporary tattoos are available to those who have completed and faxed the “Commit to Call.”
  
  
• Calls between noon and 5:00 p.m. EST on Tuesday, May 22 to report new member pledge totals for the month of May.

Currently, more than 200 local HBAs are registered to participate in NAHB’s annual membership drive.

‘Buy Now’ Advertising Assistance Nears $1 Million. 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” matching advertising assistance grant from NAHB. HBAs from around the country have already applied and have begun to receive their assistance funds. 

To date, 51 local associations have applied for advertising assistance grants from the $1 million to be awarded during the first phase of the program, and $997,443 has been approved. The total cost of their campaigns is $3.5 million. 

Another $2 million will be made available if the advertising assistance program is successful, and HBAs are encouraged to apply now.

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.

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