Carl Harris, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a custom home builder from Wichita, Kan., attended tonight’s State of the Union address and issued the following statement regarding President Biden’s remarks:

“NAHB commends President Biden for acknowledging that homeownership and housing are critical to a strong and prosperous nation and that quick action must be taken to aggressively increase the supply of attainable, affordable housing by building 2 million more homes. With a nationwide housing shortage of roughly 1.5 million housing units, boosting the supply of housing is the only way to tame inflation, achieve a measure of price stability in the for-sale and rental markets, and ease the nation’s housing affordability crisis.

“By announcing several proposals to enable more families to achieve homeownership or have access to suitable rental housing, the president has made it clear that housing is an urgent national priority. NAHB looks forward to working with the administration and Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress to help in this effort by eliminating excessive regulations; opposing restrictive, costly national energy code proposals that will raise housing costs while providing little energy savings to consumers; promoting careers in the skilled trades; and alleviating permitting roadblocks.

“These common-sense solutions will bend the housing cost curve, reduce housing inflation and the overall inflation rate, enable builders to boost attainable housing production and put the economy on a firmer footing.”