Special Edition - NBN Online for the week of December 22, 2008

Major Blitz Urges Central Role for Housing in Stimulus Plan

In a major blitz to make housing a central part of the new economic stimulus package, NAHB and its allies in the Fix Housing First coalition will be converging on Capitol Hill during the first week of January to champion an aggressive plan that would create jobs and stimulate home sales in 2009. 

“Congress must address the root problems of rising foreclosures, declining home values and falling home sales — all of which are killing the economy, undermining the financial system and resulting in hundreds of thousands of layoffs month after month,” said NAHB Chairman Sandy Dunn. “That’s the message we will be delivering when more than 150 builders come to Washington January 7 in a targeted fly-in focused on key members of Congress.”

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Down But Not Out, Builders Press for Stimulus to Rally U.S. Economy

In news media teleconferences around the country last week, NAHB leaders and members joined to convey the urgency of putting housing at the center of the economic stimulus plan that Congress is now rushing to put together so that it will be ready for enactment almost as soon as President Barack Obama is sworn into office on Jan. 20.

NAHB President and Chief Executive Officer Jerry Howard voiced concern over the acceleration of the housing downturn, noting that housing starts last month slumped to their slowest pace since the Commerce Department began tracking them in 1959, and that residential production actually had fallen to its lowest point since World War II.

NAHB Shares Construction Lending Concerns With FDIC Chairman

NAHB Senior Officers emerged from a Dec. 17 meeting in Washington with Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chairman Sheila Bair and her staff with the encouragement that the FDIC is interested in working with home builders to resolve key issues related to the ongoing credit crunch for acquisition, development and construction (AD&C) financing.

NAHB has been receiving increasing reports from its members in the field that they are encountering extreme difficulty in obtaining credit for viable projects. Builders with outstanding construction and development loans say they are experiencing intense pressure as the result of requirements for significant amounts of additional equity, denials on loan extensions and demands for immediate repayment.

Nation's Building News Will Not Be Published During the Holidays

Following the publication of this special issue, Nation's Building News will not be published during the holidays on Dec. 29 and Jan. 5. Publication will resume on Jan. 12.

Have a happy and warm holiday season and a Happy New Year.

Read More in Nation’s Building News — Win a Full IBS Registration

Click on and read five or more stories in this issue of Nation’s Building News and you automatically will be entered in a contest to win a full registration to the 2009 International Builders’ Show in Las Vegas on Jan. 20-23.

Full registration — $425 for members and $575 for non-members — gives attendees access to four days of exhibits on one million net square feet of exhibit space, all the educational sessions at IBS and new, daily-featured speakers who will give you pointers on how to navigate the downturn.