Let's Celebrate a Good Year

As my year as NAHB chairman winds to a close, I want to look back at the accomplishments of 2024, consider the state of the remodeling sector now, and take a brief look ahead.

First off, I must thank Mike Pressgrove, my fellow Kansan, for his excellent leadership of the NAHB Remodelers. Mike’s dedication, wisdom and can-do spirit have been a tremendous resource and his leadership on the workforce development issue has been extraordinary.

Now, I’ll start with a look at economic conditions for remodelers.

The remodeling industry is buoyed by American homeowners’ $35 trillion in home equity. And with mortgage interest rates still high, many homeowners are choosing to invest in their current residence rather than purchase a new home.

I mentioned Mike Pressgrove’s efforts in promoting workforce development. NAHB is engaged in this issue in many ways, including partnerships with groups such as the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Ford Next Generation Learning and SkillsUSA. NAHB’s Student Chapters are connecting students with our local home builders’ associations and with job opportunities. The National Housing Endowment helps fund education in the building trades and construction management at colleges and high schools across the country. And NAHB’s workforce development partner, the Home Builders Institute (HBI), is the nation’s leading educational resource for career technical education in home building.

The state of politics and the legislature also played a large role in the narrative of the last year.

NAHB in 2024 enjoyed a major legal victory with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the case of Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. Previously, the courts gave federal agencies broad discretion to interpret statutes when Congressional intent was ambiguous. The new ruling means that federal agencies will now have less discretion to impose new regulations that Congress did not clearly authorize. NAHB had been pushing the federal courts to reconsider this issue for many years.

Of course, the big story line of 2024 was the election. NAHB supported pro-housing, pro-business candidates through its bipartisan BUILD-PAC, and 96% of the candidates supported by BUILD-PAC won their races on Nov. 5.

A pro-business Congress will be critically important as the legislature takes up the most pressing policy issues of 2025 – the fate of tax cuts enacted in 2017 that are set to expire soon.

NAHB will be working closely with Congress to preserve roughly $4 trillion in beneficial tax provisions set to expire on Jan. 1, 2026. These include the deduction for small business income, lower individual income tax rates, an expansion of the standard deduction, higher thresholds for the alternative minimum tax (AMT), an expansion of the child tax credit, and broader exemptions from the estate tax.

We expect Congress to take up the tax issue early this year.

I’m proud of NAHB’s accomplishments over the last year. And I am incredibly grateful for all the time and energy that our members contribute to the association’s advocacy efforts at the local, state, and federal levels.

Thank you for all you do.