T
he National Association of Home Builders has responded to the worsening housing affordability crisis by introducing a 10-point plan designed to remove the barriers hindering residential construction—and six of the proposed action items are important to residential remodelers. Those recommendations include:
1. Eliminating excessive regulations and requiring cost analysis
Lawmakers must consider the true effect of regulations on small businesses and require a comprehensive analysis of the indirect costs associated with any proposed rule. Federal efforts to further regulate the housing industry must be subject to greater congressional oversight, allow for increased public participation in the process, and be based on sound data, and then advanced only after careful consideration of the costs and benefits to small businesses.
2. Promoting careers in the skilled trades
During the next three years, home builders and remodelers will need to add 2.2 million workers to keep up with demand, therefore it’s imperative for policymakers to support education funding for the construction trades and to provide more placement services for job seekers. The current severe labor shortage is exacerbating the housing affordability crisis through higher home building costs and construction delays.
3. Fixing building material supply chains and easing costs
The costs for building materials have surged 38% since the beginning of the COVID pandemic, so lawmakers need to help mend faulty building material supply chains and ease price spikes and volatility. The correction can be accomplished by boosting the production of sorely needed transformers and other materials and by ending tariffs on lumber shipments coming into the U.S. from Canada and on building materials coming from China. Additionally, policymakers can increase the domestic supply of timber from federally owned lands in an environmentally responsive manner.
4. Alleviating permitting roadblocks by imposing time limits on government
Permitting delays at all levels of government slow housing projects and increase construction costs. NAHB proposes a solution that limits the amount of time the government has to deny or approve a permit; if there’s no action when the time limit is reached, the permit is deemed approved.
5. Adopting reasonable and cost-effective building codes
New homes are resilient and energy efficient, so we believe that instead of mandating restrictive energy codes that raise housing costs but provide little energy savings to consumers, policymakers should instead focus on existing properties. With 130 million of the nation’s 137 million homes constructed before modern building codes took effect in 2010, there’s significant opportunity for remodelers to upgrade the energy efficiency of existing housing stock.
6. Updating employment policies to promote flexibility and opportunity
Residential remodeling requires a broad range of skills, and subcontracting out large portions of work has proved to keep production costs low and provide numerous opportunities for small businesses. Therefore, we believe that all employers and employees should have the right to lawfully set working conditions and wages using clear, easily repeatable procedures that benefit both workers and businesses