Housing affordability continues to be a challenge in every corner of the country. A lack of housing supply is a key component to this challenge, but policy mandates exacerbate the issue by making it more expensive and more time-consuming to build homes.

NAHB CEO Jim Tobin recently appeared on the Builder Straight Talk podcast to highlight the hurdles builders face in the current market, and how the Federation is working at the local, state and national levels to address them.

“Homeownership is the gateway to the middle class in this country, and we are pushing homeownership farther and farther away from the next generation,” Tobin shared with podcast host Michael Krisa. “The more we do that, the harder it is for them to build equity, build real wealth in this country. The housing crisis has catastrophic downstream effects that we have not felt yet for the next generations behind us.”

Hurdles include:

• Energy Code Mandates: Mandates from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Department of Agriculture (USDA) for new homes financed through certain federal programs comply with the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) add tens of thousands of dollars to the cost of a new home. 

  If the focus is truly on energy efficiency, Tobin suggested, policymakers should be turning their attention to the 130 million homes — roughly 90% of the nation’s housing stock — that were built before 2010 and less efficient that the homes being built today.

• Local Impact Fees and Other Upfront Taxes: Rather than raise property taxes, which affects current home owners, local governments often turn to impact fees and permitting costs to generate revenue, which raises the costs of new homes and puts them out of reach for new homeowners.
• Labor Shortage: There’s a monthly shortage of roughly 200,000 construction workers, and builders will need to add 2.2 million new workers over the next three years to keep up with demand. To help bolster the construction workforce, there needs to be a mindset shift in how we approach and value the trades. 

  “It’s [changing the] hearts and minds of students, guidance counselors who are oftentimes reviewed on how many kids they send to four-year institutions, and more importantly, parents to tell their kids, ‘Hey, you don’t have to college to be successful in this country,’” he noted.

NAHB constantly advocates on behalf of its member at the local, state and national level to address these and other key issues, and Tobin values the ability to share builders’ perspectives with policymakers on Capitol Hill.

“The builders are all facing the same issues — degrees and difficulties are different, but the same issues,” he noted. “And I want them to be able to touch and feel NAHB to know that we’re there to support them.”

Learn more about NAHB’s blueprint to tackle the housing affordability crisis at nahb.org/plan.

Watch the full episode below.