In the wake of President Obama's job speech Thursday, Bob Nielsen, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), said in a press release that "it's discouraging that the Administration still fails to recognize that housing has a central role to play in restoring the nation's workforce."
The $447-billion plan would slash payroll taxes for small businesses, fund infrastructure improvements at 35,000 public schools, and extend unemployment benefits. The president briefly addressed housing in his speech, saying his administration would work with federal regulators to help homeowners refinance their mortgages, something the president said could "put more than $2,000 a year in a family's pocket, and give a lift to an economy still burdened by the drop in housing prices."
But Neilsen is more concerned with actual home building, not just mortgage regulation. "In normal times," Nielsen said, "housing accounts for 18 percent of the nation's gross domestic product, and nothing packs a bigger local economic impact than home building. Constructing 100 average single-family homes generates more than 300 full-time jobs, $23.1 million in wage and business income and $8.9 million in federal, state and local tax revenue."
Nielsen added, "Housing has traditionally led the nation out of past recessions and needs to be playing a far bigger role than it has so far in today's lackluster recovery. That won't happen until federal regulators move to end the credit freeze for new home production, banks allow qualified home buyers access to affordable home loans and policymakers acknowledge there is a clear need to support homeownership and get housing moving again to spur growth, create jobs and restore consumer confidence."
The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that President Obama would send the plan to Congress on Monday night. This past weekend he went to Virginia to sell the plan, and this week he will visit Ohio and North Carolina.
