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Addressing the International Forestry Forum in Russia, U.S. home builders offered to share American home building technology with their Russian hosts and encouraged them to boost exports of softwood lumber and other wood products to America.
"We support opening up competition in the U.S. lumber market because we know that it will be beneficial for those families in our country who want to buy homes," said Jerry Howard, executive vice president and CEO of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). "We also appreciate the benefit it will bring to our home builders, who are seeking a steady supply of affordably priced lumber."
Howard and NAHB Immediate Past President David Wilson, a home builder from Ketchum, Idaho, represented NAHB and the International Housing Association (IHA) at the conference.
That's why, says Mayor Al Richards, the Milwaukee suburb is experimenting with a program that waives construction permit fees. Richards and others say it's an incentive for homeowners to stay in the area and add-on to their homes when they decide they need more room. City Administrator Ralph Voltner says about one-third of the city's homes are between 700 and 900 square feet. So while there are plenty of ritzy condos and townhomes, he says there's room to grow. And that's why he made the proposal, which was approved in August. To qualify for the fee waivers, construction costs must be at least half of the assessed value of the home. Savings can be big. For example, the savings from waiving costs for plumbing, electrical, heating and A-C and building can be from one-thousand to 25-hundred dollars.
Kara Homes' bankruptcy filing could hurt a number of banks and make lenders more cautious about lending to builders as the real estate market slumps. The Chapter 11 filing last week by the East Brunswick-based home builder shows a surprising number of lenders facing large amounts of potential losses, analyst Albert Savastano wrote in a research report Monday. .
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