The Builder's Role in Housing Affordability
The 10-point plan created by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) to address housing affordability is a solid, thoughtful effort focused on “right-sizing” various housing-related policies to boost production with lower regulatory costs and delays. If it works, it will ideally result in a better balance of housing supply and demand and more product at attainable price points.
Builders have a critical role to play in that plan, namely to collaborate with policymakers, especially at the local level, to find solutions that work for both sides. Those aren’t easy conversations, but there’s no other route to align housing policies to deliver the affordable homes everyone says they want.
But let’s be real: Most builders—especially those with little political clout or the interest, time, or desire to sit down with a city council member to champion attainability—aren’t apt to do so.
But it doesn’t just mean you get to sit on the sidelines and watch NAHB's plan play out.
RELATED
- NAHB's Plan to Promote Housing Affordability
- What Are Our Affordable Housing Options, Really?
- Solutions to Housing Affordability
One thing I found missing (or at least not overtly stated) in that plan is the role builders can play outside of the political arena to take initiative on a more personal scale. Here are a few ideas to consider:
Get Leaner
Builders repeatedly tell us they strive for operational efficiencies. However you define that term—automating processes, shedding unpopular product and options, adopting digital tools—doing so reduces costs, boosts production, and creates time and space (and money) to think and act more creatively.
Get Smarter
Articulate your pinch points, find ways to deliver in-house data about them, seek out benchmarking opportunities to set performance goals and create measurement systems, and stick with it. The result will be continuous improvement and efficiencies that will resonate throughout your operation.
Get Better
Build a better product, period. Set and enforce quality standards for construction and track performance against them. Not only will doing so reduce the time and cost of return trips and rework, materials waste, and warranty callbacks, but you’ll become a builder of choice among your trade partners.
Get Out
... of your comfort zone: Consider other production methods, partnerships to compete for and finance land, and niche markets to set yourself apart.
Now is the time to take a measure of personal (if not political) responsibility to ensure a better future for your business and your industry.
Correction: The 2023 revenue for Napolitano Homes in this year’s Housing Giants is $99,149,462 across 162 closings, placing the builder at No. 152 in our rankings. We apologize for the error and the online rankings have been updated.
New to the Team: Please welcome Caroline Broderick to the Pro Builder team as Senior Editor – Products and as the new editor of our Custom Builder Online brand.
