NBN Online for the week of September 17, 2007

Veteran Builders Offer Tips to Weather Tough Times

Hunkering down for a housing correction that has turned out to be longer and tougher than expected because of a credit crunch in the mortgage market, veteran home builders who have suffered through economic downturns before shared their experiences with younger members of the housing industry who haven’t at a special panel discussion on Sept. 7 during NAHB’s fall board of directors meeting in Seattle.

“We knew that there would be a day that this market cycled” down from the housing boom, said Albuquerque, N.M.-based builder Michael Sivage, who moderated the open discussion on what builders can do to weather the economic downturn. However, just as in the past, the industry has been “caught by surprise,” he said, largely because previous housing downturns were accompanied by a national economic recession. This time, although interest rates have inched up steadily, he noted, the economy has remained “alive and strong.”

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Lumber Prices Provided by Random Lengths

Concerted Effort Urged to End Housing Credit Crunch

In its centerpiece resolution adopted at the recent fall board of directors meeting in Seattle, NAHB urged the national leadership in Washington to recognize the seriousness of the housing credit crunch and to take steps to calm and stabilize financial markets and to restore confidence and liquidity to the nation’s mortgage markets.

The NAHB board also called on Congress, the Administration and financial institution regulators to work with the housing and lending communities to develop solutions to subprime foreclosure problems without unduly restricting credit to the boarder housing market.

NAHB ‘Buy Now’ Program Yields $8.3 Million in Advertising

NAHB’s $3 million “Buy Now” Advertising Assistance Program, launched at the 2007 International Builders' Show last February, was leveraged into HBA advertising campaigns valued at more than $8.3 million.

NAHB created the advertising assistance program to help local home builders associations bolster home sales in down housing markets. The program provided grants ranging from $5,000 to $75,000 to 168 associationss in 42 states. To view a list of the HBAs that received grants, and their grant level categories, click here.

Many of the funds went to areas hardest hit by the downturn, including markets in California, Florida, the Northeast and upper Midwest.

Four grants were awarded in the top 10 major media markets. In medium-sized markets, 89 HBAs received grants, and among HBAs with less than 250 members, 75 grants were distributed.