The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) has published a 10-point plan designed to address housing affordability challenges.
In announcing the plan, the NAHB observed there was a nationwide shortage of approximately 1.5 million housing units, which exacerbates shelter inflation and reduces affordability opportunities.
The 10 points put forth by NAHB include:
- Eliminating excessive regulations and the federal, state and local levels
- Promoting careers in the skilled construction trades
- Fixing the building material supply chains and easing construction costs
- Passing federal tax legislation to expand the production of affordable and attainable housing
- Overturning state and local zoning rules that inhibit home construction and inflate costs
- Addressing permitting delays that hold up progress on housing projects and raise construction costs
- Adopting “reasonable and cost-effective” building codes
- Reducing local impact fees and other upfront taxes associated with housing construction
- Making it easier for developers to finance new housing
- Updating employment policies to “promote flexibility and opportunity”
“The lack of homes is the primary cause of growing housing affordability challenges,” said NAHB Chairman Carl Harris, a custom home builder from Wichita, Kansas. “Any policy that seeks to improve affordability without addressing the need to increase the supply of single-family and multifamily for-sale and for-rent housing is doomed to fail.”
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