Cornerstone Magazine, May 2025 by Ballinger Publishing

CORNERSTONE MAGAZINE

2025 Leadership Board

Austin Tenpenny President aDoor Properties

Josh Rayls Secretary Holiday Builders

Wilma Shortall Past 2nd Vice President The First Bank

Heath Kelly 1st Vice President

Heath Kelly Construction

Kevin Sluder 2rd Vice President Gene’s Floor Covering

Dax Campbell Immediate Past-President CamCon

Shon Owens Tresurer Owens Custom Homes

Janson Thomas 3rd Vice President Swift Supply

Josh Peden Financial Officer Hudson, Peden & Associates

2025 Home Builders

Association of West Florida Board of Directors

SENIOR OFFICERS

Austin Tenpenny, aDoor Properties, President

Heath Kelly, Heath Kelly Construction, First Vice President / President-Elect

Shon Owens, Owens Custom Homes, Treasurer

Josh Rayls, Holiday Builders, Secretary

Kevin Sluder, Gene’s Floor Covering, 2rd Vice President

Janson Thomas, Swift Supply, 3rd Vice President

Wilma Shortall, The First Bank, Past 2nd Vice President

Dax Campbell, CamCon, Immediate Past-President

Josh Peden, Hudson, Peden & Associates, Financial Officer

Stephen Moorhead, Moorhead Law Group, Legal Counsel

ASSOCIATE DIRECTORS

Bill Batting, REW Materials

Keith Branch, Good Foundations, Cost and Codes Chair

Rick Byars, Florida Power & Light

Mickey Clinard, Renasant Mortgage

Laura Gilmore, Fairway Ind. Mortgage, Affordable Housing Liaison

Chris Graye, Graye’s Granite

Thomas Hammond, Hammond Engineering, Civil Engineering Liaison

John Hattaway, Hattaway Home Design

Lindy Hurd, First International Title, Sales & Marketing Committee Chair

Shellie Isakson-Smith, SWBC

Mary Jordan, Gulf Coast Insurance, Tradesmen/Workforce Development Committee Chair

Daniel Monie, KJM Land Surveying

Alex Niedermayer, Underwood Anderson & Associates

Zach Noel, Clear Title of NW FL

Suzanne Pollard-Spann, Legacy Insurance Brokers, Ambassadors Committee Chair

Marty Rich, University Lending Group

John Scanlon, Pensacola Energy

Pam Smith, Real Estate Counselors, Pensacola Assn. of Realtors Liaison

Chris Thomas, Acentria Insurance

BUILDER DIRECTORS

Joel Coleman, P.E., Lennar

Chad Edgar, Joe-Brad Construction

Amir Fooladi, ParsCo, Jessica Ford, FD Builds

Fred Gunther, Gunther Properties

Drew Hardgrave, Landshark Homes

Thomas Henry, Thomas Homes

Alton Lister, Lister Builders, Governmental Affairs Committee Chair

Kyle McGee, Sunchase Construction

Jennifer Reese, Reese Construction Services

Douglas Russell, R-Squared Construction

Anton Zaynakov, Grand Builders

EX-OFFCIO / PAST PRESIDENT BOARD MEMBERS

Edwin Henry, Henry Company Homes

Shelby Johnson, Johnson Construction, Remodeler’s Council Chair

Russ Parris, Parris Construction Company

CORNERSTONE MAGAZINE

JENNIFER MANCINI

Executive Director jennifer@hbawf.com

Publisher Malcolm Ballinger malcolm@ballingerpublishing.com

Executive Editor Kelly Oden kelly@ballingerpublishing.com

Art Director Ian Lett ian@ballingerpublishing.com

Graphic Designer/Ad Coordinator Ryan Dugger advertise@ballingerpublishing.com

Editor Morgan Cole morgan@ballingerpublishing.com

Assistant Editor Nicole Willis nicole@ballingerpublishing.com

Sales & Marketing

Paula Rode, Account Executive, ext. 28 paula@ballingerpublishing.com

Geneva Strange, Account Executive, ext. 31 geneva@ballingerpublishing.com

Cornerstone, the monthly publication of the Home Builders Association of West Florida serving Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties, is published monthly, twelve (12x) per year. Send address changes to HBA of West Florida, 4400 Bayou Boulevard, Suite 45, Pensacola, Florida 32503-1910. Cornerstone, is published in the interests of all segments of the home building industry and is distributed to its members and others associated with the HBA of West Florida. HBA of West Florida and Ballinger Publishing does not accept responsibility for, or endorse any statement or claims made by advertisers or authors of any articles. Every effort has been made to assure ac-curacy of information, but authenticity cannot be guaranteed. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of Home Builders Association of West Florida, Copyright ©, 4400 Bayou Boulevard, Suite 45, Pensacola, Florida 32503-1910, 850.476.0318. Advertisers and advertorials in Cornerstone do not constitute an offer for sale in states where prohibited by law.

HBA Past Presidents Honored at 75th Anniversary Event

We proudly honored our HBA Past Presidents at a pin ceremony during HBA’s 75th Anniversary event at the Pensacola Yacht Club on April 23rd. Thank you to all of our Past Presidents who joined us for this very special occasion. We thank you all for your service to the HBA!

Chad Edgar (2022)

Amir Fooladi (2024)

Edwin Henry (1993)

Thomas Henry (2000)

Shelby Johnson (2015)

Alton Lister (2019)

Russ Parris (2011)

Jon Pruitt (2017)

Bobby Price, Jr. (2006)

Charlie Rotenberry (1986)

Todd Stafford (2009)

Ron Tuttle (2008)

Thomas Westerheim (2016)

Despite Exemptions and Delays, Tariffs are Already Affecting Builders

Home builders have already started to feel the effects of U.S. tariff policy, according to recent NAHB member surveys. This is true even though the Administration did not announce its list of reciprocal tariffs until April 2nd, lumber along with USMCA-compliant imports from Canada and Mexico were exempt, and a week later the Administration enacted a 90-day hiatus, with tariffs on countries other China limited to 10% over this time. The Administration subsequently granted further temporary exemptions from the reciprocal tariffs for a broad range of electronic products imported from China.

After all this, significant uncertainty about the final outcome still remains. The U.S. may revisit trade policy for Canada and Mexico, China-U.S. negotiations are unsettled, and the effects of the 10% tariff on building products from other countries are difficult to predict. Moreover, exactly what will happen at the end of the 90-day hiatus is unclear. In the meantime, economic uncertainty can adversely affect consumer confidence and make prospective home buyers hesitate. This is one of the reasons the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) declined in March.

The latest NAHB estimate (based on cost data from RSMeans and PPI inflation rates) is that the average new singlefamily home requires $174,155 worth of building materials. Previous NAHB research has shown that 7.3% of materials in residential construction, or $12,713 of materials costs for the average single-family home, is imported.

Based on this, it may seem that tariffs would have a limited effect on home builders. However, as noted above, the uncertainty caused by the mere announcement of tariffs can have an adverse effect on the behavior of consumers and even businesses. In recent surveys, NAHB builders and remodelers reported that building material suppliers had already increased their prices—by an average of 5.5% and 6.9%, respectively—due to announced, enacted or anticipated tariffs.

The data on builders came from the HMI survey and were collected during the first two weeks of March. The data on remodelers came from the survey for the NAHB/Westlake Royal Remodeling Market Index and were collected during the last week of March and first three days of April.

NAHB will continue to monitor material pricesgiven the uncertainty and fluidity of the tariff situation.