Builder - August 2008 - (Page 69)

NAHB BRIEFS Be Heard I n a major grassroots effort, the NAHB is urging its members to contact their senators and representatives and ask them to have the effective date of the proposed home buyer tax credit extended for an additional 90 days to make it as effective as possible in turning around the current BEAT NEWS FROM HOUSING’S GROUND ZERO ■ NATIONAL EDI T ED BY CL A IR E KOLT KO downturn in home sales. “We are asking the House, as it begins making its changes to the bill, to add the months of April, May, and June 2009 to the effective date of the credit,” says Sandy Dunn, president of the NAHB. Still Golden Credit Concerns The tightening of AD&C credit has put an extra burden on builders. FROM THE PRESIDENT L matt wood ooking a year or two down the road, California’s beleaguered home building industry should be settling back into normal growth patterns, barring any further major erosion of the capital markets or the economy, analysts from the University of Southern California’s Lusk Center for Real Estate told a PCBC audience in San Francisco in June. In ▶ G iven today’s housing market condi- Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, tions, it was probably inevitable that the and with the heads of the Federal Deposit Insurance mortgage credit crunch would spill over into Corp., the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, lending for land acquisition, land develop- and the Office of Thrift Supervision. Our message ment, and construction (AD&C). has been the same: that the credit squeeze on builder But that doesn’t mean we have to like it, and loans threatens to prolong the housing downturn and it doesn’t mean the NAHB is going to that we need these agencies to work with just sit on the sidelines and watch as lendus to ensure that AD&C loans for builders ers tighten credit for acquisition and remain available at a reasonable cost. development of land and construction of In addition to urging a balanced new homes. approach to AD&C lending, we have tesEven in a slow market, reasonably tiﬁed before Congress and called on it to priced and readily available credit is the consider several ways to broaden sources of AD&C credit. We are also calling on lifeblood of the home building industry, Fannie Mae to ramp up activity in its and we are working hard to make sure that AD&C loan purchase program and for banks and regulators don’t overreact and SANDY DUNN worsen an already difficult situation. Freddie Mac to create a similar program. president, nahb (see page 70) In recent weeks, we have met with Ben washington, d.c. The FHA can also help W W W.BUILDERONLINE.COM augus t 2 0 08 B U I LD E R ■ 69 http://www.builderonline.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Builder - August 2008

Builder - August 2008 Contents Editor’s Notes Bmail Book It Inside Story Success Stories Top Shelf Green House Sales Strategies Products Digital Home National Beat Seiders' Economy Trade Secrets: Staying Afloat Sign of the Times Missing Links Ad Index Last Word

Builder - August 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.