White House issues 'Housing Supply Action Plan'
The Biden administration has released the "Housing Supply Action Plan" to ease high housing costs by increasing the supply of quality housing throughout the nation over the next five years.
The White House’s plan includes steps that the administration can take through the federal agencies to help address a host of affordability challenges and improve financing options, as well as legislative proposals that must be enacted by Congress.
The National Association of Home Builders said it supports the plan and has warned that housing affordability is threatening to “derail” the industry.
"We commend the White House for joining the fight to put the issue of housing affordability in the forefront of the national economic agenda after NAHB had been urging the administration to move on this vital national concern for the past several months," said NAHB Chairman Jerry Konter.
As interest rates and construction costs have increased, the housing market is showing significant signs of weakening, increasing the recession risk for the overall economy.
Increasing the nation's supply of affordable housing will help to combat the inflation crisis and keep the economy moving forward, the NAHB said.
Builders across the country have faced a 35% increase in the price of lumber and other building materials since the start of the pandemic.
The NAHB has been urging the White House to act on the common-sense solutions that address the current lumber crisis. This includes ending tariffs on Canadian lumber shipments into the United States that are exacerbating unprecedented lumber price volatility.
Other solutions the NAHB has offered include increasing the domestic supply of timber from federal lands in an environmentally responsible manner and calling on domestic sawmills to boost output.
In a statement issued by the agency, the NAHB said will continue to work with the administration to resolve supply chain disruptions for building materials, which must be addressed immediately.
The administration acknowledged that long-term headwinds, like supply chain bottlenecks and chronic construction labor shortages, have been repeatedly identified by NAHB members as holding back housing production.
Though the plan also properly identifies that state and local governments must address the policies and regulations that prohibit housing, NAHB is calling on the administration to acknowledge the need to reform federal regulations that raise the cost of producing single-family and multifamily housing.
The NAHB also said that it agrees with the White House that the key to resolving our nation's housing affordability challenges is to build more homes.
The home building industry said that it is willing help solve the affordability crisis that will enable builders to construct more affordable entry-level housing, raise first-time, first-generation, and minority homeownership rates, provide quality rental housing, and shore up the national economy.
The latest NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Index fell eight points to 69 this month. The index measures builder confidence in the market for newly-built single-family homes.
