Page 16 - Green Builder Magazine Nov-Dec 2019 Issue

The Back Story: Labor,

Materials and Land Costs

The triple impacts of a labor shortage, rising material costs and out-of-sight land
costs has dramatically limited the number and types of new homes being built.

OME BUILDING has
undergone massive changes CONSTUCTION OCCUPATION TOTAL NO HS DIPLOMA IMMIGRANTS SHARE
over the last few years. As
mentioned in the Editor’s General Laborer 1,849,815 30.7% 34.1%
H Note (page 2), far fewer
homes are being constructed now, at far Carpenters 1,097,577 25.2% 27.6%
higher price points. Home ownership has
declined, renters are on the rise. Scarcity of Painters/Paperhangers 575,490 36.7% 42.6%
housing, especially in urban markets, has
inflated rents and home values, leaving Roofers 237,133 45.6% 43.5%
a large segment of the population on the
sidelines. Drywall Installers 152,939 43.3% 49.2% SOURCE: NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF HOME BUILDERS

LABOR WOES Carpet/Tile Installers 152,658 37.3% 41.0%
There’s plenty of blame to go around for
the lack of construction laborers. First, Stucco Masons 36,339 47.3% 59.0%
there was the building boom, followed by Immigrants matter. Nationwide, homebuilders have become highly dependent on reliable, low-cost
the recession. According to the National immigrant labor.
Association of Home Builders (NAHB),
about 1.5 million workers left the industry immigrants—legal and otherwise—such Association, the labor shortage alone has
between 2007 and 2009, and many never as tile setters and roofers, offer extreme added $6,000 to the cost of a new home,
came back. pro“ciency at low cost. They’ve been the due primarily to delays in completion.
Housing starts (single- and multi-family) backbone of the building industry for more Given this scenario, reducing the overall
have picked up to a pace of 1.2 million a than a decade. They keep the building need for labor has become an important
month, more than twice as many as at their timeline on track by meeting or exceeding goal to those companies that survived
trough in April 2009. However, the number project deadlines, which increases builder the last recession. This has loosened the
of nonsupervisory workers in residential con- pro“ts. normally conservative approach to building
struction has increased by only 40 percent Skilled trades, immigrant and otherwise, systems and products. Structural Insulated
since 2011. have also become scarce. According to Panels (SIPs), Insulated Concrete Forms
The immigrant labor issue is a complex The Washington Post, global sta•ng “rm (ICFs), and less-known panelized systems,
one. The Los Angeles Times, for example, Manpower Group reported that skilled trade for example, are getting a long overdue
asserts that the reason immigrant labor vacancies are the hardest jobs in the country second look.
became so important in homebuilding was to “ll. Skilled trades (electricians, carpenters,
because contractors and their corporate welders, bricklayers, plasterers, plumbers, MATERIALS: HIGHER PRICES STEER
clients, for 10 years, worked hard to undercut masons and more) have maintained the BUILDERS TO ALTERNATIVES
unionized labor—and immigrants rushed in No. 1 position in vacancies from 2010 to the Along with lack of workers, other forces
to “ll the gap at a lower cost per hour. present. have made alternatives to stick-built homes
The reality, of course, is that many According to the Dallas Builders more attractive. For example, according

14 GREEN BUILDER November/December 2019 www.greenbuildermedia.com

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