Housing Market Poised and Ready for 2023

This article first appeared in the March/April 2023 issue of Pro Builder.

The tremendous turnout at the National Association of Home Builders’ International Builders’ Show (IBS) and the 10th annual Design & Construction Week (DCW) earlier this year in Las Vegas is a clear sign NAHB and its members are prepared for whatever comes their way in 2023. Over 200,000 industry members—including 70,000 registered for IBS alone—flocked to Vegas for the largest gathering of housing professionals in the world. DCW had the highest attendance in its history and included more than 1,800 exhibitors showcasing the latest home building products across 1 million net square feet of exhibit space.

As newly elected 2023 NAHB chairman, I’m excited to build on the palpable energy from IBS. I am committed to strengthening NAHB’s culture of membership, an area of emphasis of 2022 chairman Jerry Konter. Everything the NAHB federation does at the local, state, and national levels must create value for our members.

IBS showcased that value in numerous ways, including NAHB’s workforce development efforts, through the annual student competition, educational sessions, the Workforce Development Champions forum, and a commitment of $50,000 to the National Housing Endowment ’s Skilled Labor Fund.

Home Building Awards at IBS

During the show, NAHB’s National Sales and Marketing Council hosted The Nationals, honoring outstanding sales and marketing, 55+ housing communities, builders, remodelers, and global innovators. And the Best in American Living Awards (BALA), now in its 39th year, recognized builders and design professionals in all sectors of the housing industry, including single-family production, custom building, multifamily, affordable housing, remodeling, community, and interiors, for their exceptional residential design achievements.

Highlighting New Trends While Delivering Sustainability

IBS also spotlighted the top features and design trends for 2023. Thousands of attendees visited The New American Home 2023, the official show home of the Builders’ Show. The home drew rave reviews for its wonderful combination of elegance and livable comfort. Featuring easy flow between indoor and outdoor spaces and stunning views of the Las Vegas Strip, the home achieved National Green Building Standard “Emerald” certification, Energy Star certification, Indoor airPLUS certification, the Department of Energy’s Zero Energy Ready Home Program certification, and net-zero status.

Economic Update and Forecast for Housing

Attendees were also keyed into the state of the industry via the NAHB economics team. Last year’s housing recession has bled into 2023 as elevated inflation, high mortgage rates, and ongoing building material supply challenges continue to take a toll on our industry and the overall economy.

But NAHB chief economist Dr. Robert Dietz said he thinks the second half of 2023 could be a turning point for housing as interest rates normalize and the Federal Reserve eases up in its fight against inflation. The pace of single-family construction will begin to improve in the latter part of the year and should lead to a calendar year gain for single-family starts in 2024, Dietz said. Multifamily starts are predicted to fall in 2023, but from an unsustainably high level of production last year, while the remodeling sector should remain on solid ground in 2023, besting both the single-family and multifamily markets.

As always, NAHB’s economists, codes specialists, tax, finance, and regulatory experts, and other staff continue to show lawmakers how excessive regulations and bad policy drive up housing prices and hurt American families.

I’m proud to be the new NAHB chairman. We will continue to work with the Biden administration and Congress to enact policies that lower the cost of building and allow home builders to expand housing production, and we will work with policymakers at all levels of government to ease burdensome regulations and building material supply chain bottlenecks that harm housing affordability.

Let’s get back to building homes that meet the needs of homebuyers and renters across our great nation.

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Mental Health Resources: NAHB is looking to change the culture in the construction industry around mental health awareness by providing resources specifically tailored to construction workers, managers, developers, and business owners. To that end, NAHB has partnered with leading experts to develop tools especially for members to identify and learn more about mental health and addiction issues. Free resources to better understand the issues and provide support to workers are available at nahb.org/mentalhealth.

April Is New Homes Month: Spring has traditionally been the beginning of the homebuying season, and April is New Homes Month. This is a great time to remind potential homebuyers of the quality construction and exciting amenities found in new homes. A broad range of resources to promote New Homes Month, including customizable ads and social media content, can be found in the toolkit at nahb.org. Home Builders and other housing industry professionals can use these materials to promote New Homes month and drive traffic to their show homes.

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