Home Builders Applaud Menendez Bill to Restore the Flow of Credit for Home Building

ORLANDO, Feb. 8 - The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) today commended Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) for introducing the Home Building Lending Improvement Act of 2012, legislation to help restore the flow of credit for new housing production in order to create jobs, meet rising housing demand and bolster the economic expansion.

"We applaud Rep. Menendez for sponsoring this bill and leading the effort in the Senate to end the severe credit crunch for home building that is needlessly idling residential construction workers and hampering the housing and economic recovery," NAHB Chairman Bob Nielsen, a home builder from Reno, Nev., said while attending the International Builders' Show in Orlando.

With new housing inventories at or near record lows in many parts of the country, builders should be gearing up to produce homes to meet sizable demand from pent-up household formations and the growing list of metro areas on the NAHB/First American Improving Markets Index whose economies are recovering.

Unfortunately, banks have largely cut off home builders from the credit they need to finance new projects or complete those still underway.

Resolving this situation will enable home builders to start rebuilding the economy. Constructing 100 average single-family homes creates more than 300 jobs, $23.1 million in wages and business income and $8.9 million in taxes and revenue for local, state and federal government. And there is a considerable economic ripple effect from there. New home building contributes to the local tax base, which supports schools, police, firefighters and road construction in municipalities across the land, and most of the products used in home construction are manufactured here in the United States.

Similar legislation to resolve the ongoing credit problems for home builders was introduced in the House last year by Reps. Gary Miller (R-Calif.) and Brad Miller (D-N.C.). H.R. 1755, the Home Construction Lending Regulatory Improvement Act, currently has 87 House cosponsors.

"Without access to financing, small home builders cannot keep their doors open, let alone meet the rising demand that is emerging in scores of markets across the nation," said Nielsen. "The Menendez bill will help address the housing production credit crisis and establish an effective foundation to help housing regain its health, contribute to job growth and strengthen the economic expansion."