Page 10 - July 2022 Builder Brief Issue

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT
OUR GROWING HOUSING AFFORDABILITY CRISIS
We just returned from Washington, DC where we participated in one of the most successful Legislative Conferences hosted by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) that I have had the pleasure of participating in over the last 20+ years. The GSABA leadership team was engaged, and NAHB had us fully prepared to share the issues facing our members.
There were 10 significant problems identified facing the housing industry:
• Building Material Prices
• Availability/Time to Obtain Building Materials
• Cost/Availability of Labor
• Rising Inflation Rates
• Cost/Availability of Lots
• Difficulty Obtaining Zoning/Permits
• Appraisal Issues
• Impact and Regulatory Fees
• Federal Environmental Regulations and Policies
• Local and State Environmental Regulations and Policies
The housing affordability crisis is real and there are several things our elected officials can do to ease or eliminate certain issues. Home prices rose 18.8 percent in 2021 according to CoreLogic Case-Schiller U.S. National Home Price Index, this is the biggest increase in the 34-year history of the index. Mortgage interest rates have increased from 3.1 percent to 5.9 percent as of the start of 2022 and they continue to climb. This is the largest magnitude increase for mortgage costs in decades.
With home building material costs up 47 percent since the Spring of 2020, the largest 24-month record increase on record, the costs continue to imperil the U.S. housing sector and have dramatically affected home prices and rental costs.
KRISTI SUTTERFIELD
The message we shared and will continue to share is that housing must be an urgent priority. Housing accounts for more than 15% of the nation’s gross domestic output. If the housing market falters, the economy will surely follow.
We invite you to get involved in our government affairs and lobby efforts. Join us at our August Board of Directors lunch meeting on Tuesday, August 16th at 11:30am and stay for our Government Affairs meeting with the City of San Antonio immediately following the Board meeting in the GSABA Ballroom at 1pm.
Enjoy your summer!
Negotiating a new softwood lumber agreement with Canada could
eliminate tariffs and help our economy recover from the disruptions caused
by COVID over the past two+ years. These tariffs are NOT creating domestic Warm Regards, lumber mill jobs and they certainly aren’t increasing domestic production.
There is a commonsense approach that can be taken for the United States
to use timber from various areas across the nation. Thinning of forests and
replanting initiatives make sense and, in several areas, forests and national
parks are at fire risks due to the density. In the 1990’s, timber production
from federally owned lands was more than 10 billion board feet, today it is
less than 2 billion board feet.
The House of Representatives recently passed the Ocean Shipping Reform Act which will ease building materials supply chain bottlenecks and allow builders to obtain materials faster so they can increase production. We applaud our Congressional delegation for supporting this new piece of legislation.
10 JULY 2022 | GREATER SAN ANTONIO BUILDERS ASSOCIATION