California Builders Position Themselves as Part of Drought Solution

Builders in California vie for a voice about one of the worst droughts in the state’s history, The Wall Street Journal reports.

According to several builders, a moratorium on new construction will result in more harm than good. “You’re not going to conserve the water that you’d hope to. And the downside that you’d bring for the economy outweighs any gains,” President and Chief Executive of the California Building Industry Association David Cogdill said.

Fifty-one percent of economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal this month said the effect of the water-cut mandate on the economy will be too small to show up in data, while another 44 percent predicted the impact would be measurable, but small.

Senior analyst at housing research and consulting firm John Burns Real Estate Consulting Alex Martinez found “no attributable impact” of previous droughts on home building activity. But the current drought has no recorded precedent.

“Since we are entering uncharted territory, I fear that we will see more moratoriums placed on new-home construction,” Martinez told The Wall Street Journal.

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Economics

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