New legislation would exempt building materials from tariffs
The NAHB supported the bill upon its introduction in the House. Plus, builders sound alarm on immigration enforcement impacts; Let America Build visits Boston.
Key points:
- The NAHB is supporting a bill recently introduced by a House Democrat that seeks to exempt some home building materials from “current and future” tariffs.
- The federal government’s immigration crackdown is adding pain to the construction industry’s existing workforce shortage, the NAHB warned separately.
- The Let America Build campaign, which aims to raise consumer awareness about the housing supply gap, arrived in Boston this week to encourage local policymakers to act.
As the slow housing market continues to plod along, affordability "remains a significant challenge for prospective buyers," National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Danushka Nanayakkara-Skillington wrote earlier this week.
Many of the economic variables currently straining would-be buyers are situational, with relief dependent on a resolution in the months-long U.S.-Iran war. But there could be ways to ease economic strain in the meantime — and the NAHB has recently backed two such measures.
Legislation to ease costs of building
Last week, the NAHB noted that a piece of legislation it helped create was recently unveiled in the U.S. House of Representatives by California Democrat Nanette Barragán. A related bill was introduced in the Senate earlier this year.
Known as the Housing Tariff Exclusion Act, H.R. 10416 would establish a process to allow builders and others to request exemption from "current and future" tariffs on certain materials. Citing nonpartisan research, the bill said that if tariffs on such materials continue, this "will add billions of dollars to the cost of home construction" in the years to come, making it "more expensive for people to buy or rent homes in the United States."
The NAHB voiced its support for the legislation in a Sept. 17 blog post. "This bill would help relieve tariff-driven cost pressures on building materials, provide businesses with greater certainty and support broader efforts to improve housing affordability," NAHB Chairman Bill Owens said.
Construction industry alarmed by immigration enforcement impacts
The association shared thoughts on another topic in a Sept. 25 blog post, warning that the fears stirred by the federal government's widespread immigration crackdown are causing some legal construction workers to avoid job sites altogether.
The residential construction industry is already facing labor shortages, the NAHB said, and immigration enforcement efforts are "further straining the construction labor pool," which in turn delays construction projects and raises costs.
"Immigrant workers are vital to meeting the nation's housing needs, accounting for more than one-quarter of the construction workforce," the NAHB wrote. "The domestic labor pipeline alone cannot meet national or industry demand."
Let America Build visits Boston
Meanwhile, industry advocates put the nation's housing supply crisis on public display in Boston this week as part of the Let America Build campaign. The initiative, which is backed by 14 housing and real estate groups, is focused on raising consumer awareness about the housing supply gap and urging action by local policymakers to make zoning and regulatory changes.
The Boston event, which featured a glass home to illustrate missing housing units, served as "a visible reminder that housing policy is not abstract," Realtor.com Senior Economist Joel Berner said in a news release.
The display was meant to represent "a home that could be built — and the opportunity for a person or family to live in the community they love — but may never exist if unnecessary barriers prevent homes from moving from plan to reality," Berner added.