Dallas BA Meets with Congressional Delegation on Lumber
This week, Dallas Builders Association members and staff are meeting with our service area’s U.S. Congressional delegation to engage on key policies and challenges that impact home building. The centerpiece of discussion is the crisis of soaring prices and delays being brought on by shortages in lumber and other building materials.
As some builders have reported seeing lumber prices more than quadruple over the past year, the challenge to produce affordable housing also increases. With NAHB estimating that, nationally, the lumber price spikes have caused the price of an average new single-family home to increase by more than $24,000 since mid- April 2020, housing’s potential to lead the economy forward is being limited.
Dallas BA is urging our members of Congress to push the White House to undertake a thorough examination of the lumber supply chain and seek remedies that will increase production, as well as return to the negotiating table to seek a new softwood lumber agreement with Canada.
Other issues being presented to our national decision makers include housing finance reform, the need to strengthen the low-income housing tax credit, reasonable energy codes that provide real benefits, workforce needs and the importance that the much talked about infrastructure package avoid provisions that harm housing affordability.
The meetings are part of our 2021 Bringing Housing Home Legislative Conference in coordination with NAHB.