A push to eliminate what are being called “excessive regulations” is the first listed item in a 10-point plan just released by the National Association of Home Builders to reduce housing costs.
“On average, regulations account for nearly 25% of the cost of a single-family home and more than 40% of the cost of a typical apartment development,” the group argues in what is almost a call to arms.
Federal efforts to increase regulations of the housing industry must be “subject to greater congressional oversight,” asserts the plan, while claiming that at the local level “policies like rent control actually worsen the nation’s housing affordability crisis by discouraging new development.”
In a statement accompanying release of the plan, Carl Harris, NAHB chairman, said “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.”
Noting that there is currently a shortage of around 400,000 construction workers, the plan also calls for greater federal support of building and construction trades education, while encouraging at the same time a greater production of sorely needed transformers and other materials.
Expanding the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit will help to finance the “production of affordable housing.” At the same time, both state and local government should redouble efforts to overturn inefficient zoning rules.
Both the Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act should be updated to provide more permitting clarity and predictability. The plan additionally calls for what it describes as “reasonable and cost-effective building codes.”
The 10-point plan is rounded out with a call to reduce local impact fees and expanding such federal programs as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to serve as secondary markets for financing new home purchases.
The final point in the plan states that a simplification of the nation’s employment policies is overdue.
Looking at such factors as the status of independent contractors vs. employees, overtime pay calculations, and prevailing wages, the plan suggests that employment policies should be “simple and economical enough for all-sized businesses to comply.”
By Garry Boulard
