Page 8 - Builder Brief March 2023 Issue

2023 PRESIDENT
JOIN US FOR RALLY DAY MARCH 29TH
Most of you are aware that when you join the Greater San Antonio Builders Association (GSABA) that you also join the Texas Association of Builders (TAB) and the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). Each year, we work closely with TAB and NAHB on several regulatory and legislative issues.
TAB’s Rally Day is coming up and I hope that you will join us for this important event. RallyDaywillbeheldonWednesday,March29thanditisanadvocacy event hosted at the Texas State Capitol. Twenty-five (25) local builders’ associations and their members will come together to deliver information on critical issues to our elected officials as it relates to housing. Rally Day is a great opportunity for GSABA members to talk with our legislators and key policy staff face-to-face. TAB will provide briefing materials on legislative issues and pending legislation that is important to the Texas residential construction, remodeling, and development industry.
OurelectedofficialswanttohearfromYOU-theirconstituents. OurGSABA staff will schedule our face-to-face meetings and we will divide our members up into teams. One of GSABA’s Sr. Officers, Past Presidents or Government Affairs Co-Chairs will help lead the individual face-to-face meetings.
I can’t stress how important it is for us to meet with our House and Senate membersonMarch29thinAustin. TAB’snumberonepriorityistoreformthe Residential Construction Liability Act (RCLA) and Statue of Repose. I wrote about this in the January issue of the Builder Brief and how crucial it is to all of us.
The reform to RCLA would require actual damages as opposed to technical errorsinconstructionwherenodamagehadoccurred. TheStateofRepose reform would reduce the current Texas law that mandates a 10-year warranty toeightyearsfornewhomes. Thesereformswouldbenefitourmembersby reducing frivolous lawsuits that have been detrimental to our industry and our members.
There are several issues that we will have to play defense on this session to include City/County Plan and Plat Review Processes; County Regulation Issues and Dual ETJ Oversight Authority; Property Tax Reform; Local Paid Sick Leave and other Development Restrictions. We will provide handouts and there will be members on each team that can address each of these topics.
Texas has seen signs of an economic slowdown in the last few months — such as slower inflation and job growth — even as our state led the country in job growth last year. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest nonfarm employment data, employers across the U.S. added 517,000 new jobs last month — more than 2.5 times the increase that economists had forecast. The country’s unemployment level also dropped slightly to 3.4 percent — the lowest rate in over five decades.
It’s unclear what these latest figures look like in Texas because the federal agency has yet to release data for individual states.
But our state led the U.S. in job growth in 2022 by adding 650,100 nonfarm payroll jobs, and it continued a 14-month streak of record employment with its Decemberfigure. TheBureauofLaborStatisticsalsoreportedthatconstruction industry employment (both residential and non-residential) totaled 7.9 million
SHAD SCHMID
nationally in January of this year and exceeds its February 2020 level.
Residential construction gained 5,500 jobs, while non-residential construction employment gained 19,300 jobs in January. Residential construction employment exceeds its level in February 2020, while 96 percent of non-residential construction jobs lost in March and April 2020 have now been recovered. In January, job gains were broad-based, led by gains in leisure and hospitality (+128,000), professional and business services (+82,000), and health care (+58,000).
Employment in the overall construction sector rose by 25,000 in January, following a 26,000 gain in December. In January, the unemployment rate for construction workers ticked up by 0.1 percentage point to 4.4 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis. The unemployment rate for construction workers has been trending lower, after reaching 14.2 percent in April 2020, due to the housing demand impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since the Federal Reserve started aggressively increasing rates, we have seen a decrease in home prices from the increase in mid-2022, as well as a decline in mortgage and consumer loan applications. OurStateisalsoseeingslowergrowth insalestaxrevenue. InflationinTexasandtherest of the country is dropping month over month, so the Fed’s recent increases are having the intended effect.
We hope you will join me and the GSABA Sr. Officers on the bus at 8:30am on Wednesday, March 29th. You can register online at sabuilders.com.
Thank you for our membership and for being part of GSABA!
Sincerely,
8 MARCH 2023 | GREATER SAN ANTONIO BUILDERS ASSOCIATION