NAHB, Large Homebuilders, Agree To Keep Talking

Washington, DC, March 18, 2009--Jerry Howard is still president and CEO of the National Association of Home Builders for now after a meeting Monday between the trade group’s leaders and a group of CEOs of large builders, who were unhappy with a position Howard took on a tax issue.

A joint statement issued Tuesday morning by NAHB and the High Production Home Builders Council (HPHBC) gave no details about the meeting but took pains to say that Howard still has his job. It also said there will be ongoing discussions.

Large homebuilders were upset by a letter Howard wrote to Congress as lawmakers put together the economic stimulus package. A provision favored by the big builders would have lengthened to five years the period in which companies could “carry back” current losses to past profits.

Small builders were given the five-year carry-back, but large builders were limited to only two years. Howard had written a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to request additional safeguards be added to the language to prevent some big builders from taking advantage of the break to dump land at discount prices to generate a tax loss.