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Despite a Cooling Housing Market, Home Prices and Rents Remain High The annual State of the Nation’s Housing report from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Study (JCHS) highlights the growing housing affordability crisis, despite a slowdown in housing prices. “Rent growth slowed over the past year, and home prices declined in a number of areas,” said…

House Passes Bill to Block New Fee Structure on Fannie-Freddie Home Loans The House today passed the Middle Class Borrower Protection Act, legislation that would block the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) from implementing a new pricing framework for single-family home loans eligible for purchase by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that will lower mortgage…

Builder Confidence Moves into Positive Territory in June Solid demand, a lack of existing inventory and improving supply chain efficiency helped shift builder confidence into positive territory for the first time in 11 months. Builder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes in June rose five points to 55, according to the National…

House and Senate Lawmakers Unveil NAHB-Supported Transformer Bill At NAHB’s urging, Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) and Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) have introduced identical House and Senate bills — Protecting America’s Distribution Transformer Supply Chain Act — that would delay for five years any rulemaking on energy-efficiency standards for distribution transformers. “At a time when the…

More Than 700 Residential Construction Workers Discuss Housing Issues in Hill Visits More than 700 builders, remodelers and associates engaged in all facets of residential construction marched on Capitol Hill today to call on Congress to take steps to ease the nation’s housing affordability crisis and make housing and homeownership a national priority. “From coast…

Housing Affordability Posts Solid Gain but Still Much Lower from a Year Ago Solid nominal wage gains (unadjusted for inflation) combined with lower mortgage rates and home prices helped to boost housing affordability at the start of 2023, but ongoing building material supply chain issues and expected wage growth cooling signal ongoing concerns for affordability…

Low Existing Home Inventory Fueling Buyer Interest in New Homes As the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) celebrates National Homeownership Month in June, more Americans are turning to new home construction as existing inventory remains low and mortgage rates begin to stabilize. Sales of newly built, single-family homes increased in April, reaching the highest…

47 Bipartisan Senators Call for Action on Transformers At NAHB’s urging, a bipartisan group of 47 Senate lawmakers has sent a letter to Sec. Jennifer Granholm urging the Department of Energy (DOE) not to move forward on its proposed rule to regulate energy conservation standards for distribution transformers because it will exacerbate an already acute…

NAHB, Builders Score Big Win in SCOTUS Decision on WOTUS In a major victory for NAHB, builders, developers and property owners, the Supreme Court on May 25 issued a unanimous decision in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency that will force the Biden administration to overhaul its “waters of the U.S.” (WOTUS) rule and ultimately provide builders and…

Lack of Resales Provides Boost to New Home Sales in April Stabilizing mortgage rates and a lack of resale inventory provided a boost for new home sales in April, even as builders continue to wrestle with rising costs stemming from shortages of transformers and other building materials and a persistent lack of construction workers. Sales…