NAHB Lobbies Congress on Housing Policy

Washington, DC, May 7, 2014 -- The health of housing is key for the overall state of the U.S. economy and housing stands poised to serve as an engine of job growth with the right policies in place, the National Association of Home Builders told Congress today.

Testifying before the Senate Banking Committee’s Subcommittee on Economic Policy during a hearing examining the drivers of job creation, NAHB economist Robert Dietz said that home building and remodeling have generated 274,000 jobs over the past 2 ½ years.

Employment from new home construction and remodeling has a wide ripple effect, NAHB said. About half the jobs created by building new homes are in construction. They include framers, electricians, plumbers and carpenters. Other jobs are spread over other sectors of the economy, including manufacturing, retail, wholesale and business services.

NAHB said its analysis of the broad impact of new construction shows that building 1,000 average single-family homes generates:

• 2,970 full-time jobs
• $162 million in wages
• $118 million in business income
• $111 million in taxes and revenue for state, local and federal governments

Similarly, construction of 1,000 rental apartments, including units developed under the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, generates 1,130 jobs while $100 million in remodeling expenditures creates 890 jobs.

Currently, housing comprises about 15.5% of GDP but NAHB said the industry typicallyrepresents 17 to 18% of the GDP.

NAHB forecasts that single-family construction will increase 22% in 2014 to 760,000 units and multifamily production will rise 6% to 326,000 units.”

“In April alone, home builders and remodelers added 13,100 jobs,” NAHB economist Robert Dietz said.

NAHB estimates that total housing construction over the next few years should return to just under 1.7 million combined single-family and multifamily starts on an annual basis.

NAHB said that while home construction is poised to continue to expand and add jobs, builders continue to face persistent headwinds. These include access to building lots, rising building material prices, access to builder loans and worker shortages in some markets.

Additional challenges are the lack of policy certainty in areas connected to housing.

“Regulations imposed by the government at all levels account for 25% of the final price of a new single-family home built for sale,” Dietz said.