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NAHB NEWS

Top 10 Features for First-Time Home Buyers

The recent NAHB study, What Home Buyers Really Want, 2021 Edition, asked first-time buyers to rate more than 200 home and community features using a four-tier scale: essential, desirable, indifferent and do not want. The chart below shows the 10 “most wanted” features for first-time home buyers, based on the percentage of buyers rating a feature either desirable or essential.A laundry room tops the list, rated essential or desirable by 83% of first-time buyers, followed by a ceiling fan and exterior lighting, each rated essential or desirable by 81%. Four of the features most wanted by first-time buyers are kitchen features: A double kitchen sink and walk-in pantry (each rated essential or desirable by 80%), Drinking water filtration (78%) and Table space for eating (77%). Two are outdoor features: a patio (rated essential or desirable by 78%) in addition to exterior lighting.

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Rising Interest Rates, Construction Costs Exacerbate Housing Affordability

An elevated pace of inflation will challenge the economy for at least the next few years, prompting tighter credit market conditions. The broadest measure of inflation, the Consumer Price Index (CPI), is up 7.9% over the last 12 months, reaching a 40-year high. Although this rate of inflation should ease, albeit slowly, it will remain above the Federal Reserve’s target for price changes. This is particularly true for housing rents, which make up approximately one-third of overall inflation data.

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NAHB NEWS

Biden’s Budget Would Boost HUD Funding by $12.3 Billion

President Biden’s proposed fiscal 2023 budget, which runs from Oct. 1, 2022 through Sept. 30 2023, would increase the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s budget by $12.3 billion to $71.9 billion, or 21% above the 2021 enacted level. It’s important to note that no White House budget is ever approved “as is” by the Congress. The annual appropriations process determines the levels of federal spending for each of the federal departments and agencies, and all programs within their respective jurisdictions. While the president’s budget recommends spending levels for the next fiscal year, it is not legally binding. Congressional appropriators will have the final say in program realignment and spending levels.

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How to Check the Financial Pulse of Your Business

For builders who want to know how their business stacks up against the competition — within their regional market as well as across the nation — the NAHB publication The Cost of Doing Business Study, 2022 Edition has the answers. Builders now have the opportunity to see which U.S. builders are operating in the black, and compare the health of their business operations to industry standards.

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