FEBRUARY 2020 NEWSLETTER To promote, educate and advocate for the Residential Building & Remodeling Industry; providing resources that benefit industry professionals and consumers in the communities we serve. HBR 2020 Board of Directors ready to lead the organization The 22nd Annual Installation & Awards Banquet welcomed over 200 members, civic leaders, family and friends to celebrate as our new leadership was sworn in, Presidential Citations awarded and new initiatives were announced. It was a night to remember for sure! WHATS INSIDE Upcoming Event Registrations Mar 12 - Anybody’s Game, Networking with a Swing Mar 13 - LRRP Lead Paint Refresher Course HOME SHOW ~ HOME SHOW ~ HOME SHOW • Only 7 booths left in main room • Contractor ReSale • Official Magazine ad sales • Volunteers needed at ticket booth 2019 TOP SQUAD Score of 302 Membership Renewals & New Member State Health Insurance Program IBS Recap with messages from US Leadership NAHB 2020 “Priced Out” estimates Ethic reforms at the State Capital NEW PROGRAM: B T-REX Showcase for members to show off their industry craftsmanship and expertise thru trusted HBR promotion. Page 1
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HUD Secretary Cites Work to Ease Affordability Woes Pocket Guide to Fair Housing Act U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson said he is committed to working with NAHB and other stakeholders to seek solutions to the nation’s housing affordability crisis. Speaking at the NAHB Leadership Council meeting in Las Vegas in conjunction with the International Builders’ Show, Carson said: “Addressing our country’s affordable housing challenges will take innovation not just in physical construction and development, but also innovation in developing housing choice. For example, municipalities may help alleviate barriers to renting apartments by providing renters with financing alternatives beyond a traditional lump-sum cash security deposit.” President Trump last year signed an executive order establishing the White House Council on Eliminating Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing. “This council, which I have the privilege to chair, is working with local leaders and citizens to identify and remove regulatory burdens that block affordable housing development,” Carson said. To assist the council’s work, HUD is soliciting input on perceived barriers that limit development. “We encourage NAHB members to take advantage of this open window to provide your insights and ideas,” Carson said. Carson also announced that HUD has initiated a pilot program to give procurement preferences to small businesses whose principal office is located in an opportunity zone. Opportunity zones were established as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 to provide tax incentives for investors with capital gains to invest in underserved communities. The pilot applies to procurements at or below the Simplified Acquisition Threshold, currently set at $250,000, and typically set aside for small businesses. The pilot began on Jan. 1 and will run through June 30, 2020. The secretary also congratulated NAHB on the launch of its newest mobile app, the Page 10 Accessibility. The app was partially funded by an educational grant from HUD and will enable builders and developers to determine if the Fair Housing Act’s accessibility requirements apply to their housing project and, if so, provide a quick reference guide to the seven basic accessibility requirements for compliance with the law. Last year, NAHB and HUD teamed up to host the inaugural Innovative Housing Showcase on the National Mall. The five-day event explored the latest housing technologies that are helping to improve housing affordability. Carson announced that HUD will continue the Innovative Housing Showcase as an annual tradition and that NAHB will once again co-host this year’s event, which will take place in September. Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Mark Calabria, whose agency oversees Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Banks, also appeared before the NAHB Leadership Council to discuss the health of the housing finance system. “We are finally seeing income growth that can support housing markets,” said Calabria. “But there is still weakness in the mortgage market. We need to have a housing finance system that is competitive, liquid and resilient.” Calabria said he is working with the Treasury Department to raise the capital levels of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac up to $45 billion. “We want to build up their capital so that in times of stress they can be there for you and the rest of the market,” he said.
FRIDAY 28 2pm—8pm SATURDAY 29 10am—7pm SUNDAY 1 11am—4pm Interactive floorplan www.hbrmea.org/ FEB FEB MAR
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February FRI Annual Home Show 28 SAT Annual Home Show 29 March SUN Annual Home Show 01 2 pm - 8 pm Gateway Classic Cars O’Fallon, IL 10 am - 7 pm Gateway Classic Cars O’Fallon, IL 11 am - 4 pm Gateway Classic Cars O’Fallon, IL THU Networking with a Swing 12 @ Top Golf in Chesterfield 11am - 4pm (Party Buses will depart from St. Clair Square) April THU HBR Spring Social 02 May FRI 15 June FRI 12 Sport Clay Shoot 8 am Registration NILO Farms, Brighton, IL Bury the Hatchett 2 pm - 5 pm The Axe Hole, Collinsville, IL July FRI Annual Golf Tournament 17 10 am Registration Far Oaks Country Club Caseyville, IL September THU PWB Bowling & Go Kart Event 17 4 pm - 8 pm The Edge, Belleville October THU Member Social at Silver Creek 01 5 pm - 8 pm Belleville, IL November THU Trivia Night 05 5 pm - 8:30 pm VFW, Collinsville, IL December THU Christmas Party 10 5:30 pm - 9 pm Gateway Classic Cars O’Fallon, IL Page 14 5 pm—8 pm Bella Vista Winery, Maryville 2020 HOME BUILDERS & REMODELERS SOCIAL EVENT CALENDAR
A Big part of the Home Show is the volunteers that work at the ticket booth to greet consumers! The following shifts are available for happy faces to make sure the attendees get all the discounts they can get and give them the warmth of knowing they are going to have the best experience at our event. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 29 ___ 11:30 am to 1:30 pm ___ 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm ___ 3:30 pm to 5:30 pm SUNDAY, MARCH 1 ___ 10:30 am TO 12:30 pm ___ 12:30 pm to 3:30 pm SIGN ME UP! ________________________________________________________________________________ Name Company ________________________________________________________________________________ Email Phone # Page 15
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NEW MEMBER RENEWING MEMBERS A Royal Flush Plumbing Co., Inc. - 2 years American Portfolio Mortgage - 1 year AUTCO Home Appliances - 2 years Authorized Appliance - 2 years BELOMAN - 2 years Buettner Electric, Inc. - 2 years Coach House Garages - 20 years E.A. Knight Construction - 6 years Fence & Deck Depot, Inc. - 13 years Germantown Seamless Guttering, Inc. - 10 years Halloran Construction - 15 years Heartland Turf Farms, Inc. - 7 years Illinois Closet Concepts - 2 years Illinois Title and Escrow - 7 years John Bender, Inc. - 15 years McCullough’s Flooring Enterprise - 16 years Midwest Carpet & Duct Cleaning - 3 years Morrison Plumbing, Heating & Air - 1 year Mr. Handyman of Metro East - 4 years Munie Greencare Professionals - 14 years Otten Contracting, Inc. - 12 years P&A Drywall - 23 years Pederson HVAC - 2 years R.P. Lumber Company - 34 years Rehkemper & Son, Inc. - 23 years Scott Credit Union - 12 years Trost Plastics, Inc. - 21 years Vogt Builders, Inc. - 18 years REMODELERS COUNCIL AUTCO Home Appliances PROFESSIONAL WOMEN IN BUILDING COUNCIL BOS - Bank of Springfield (NEW) Page 17 Mike Hodges 4969 Benchmark Centre Drive, Ste 300 Swansea, IL 62226 O: 618.622.2100 C: 314.596.1491 mhodges@guildmortgage.net www.guildmortgage.com
NAHB 2020 “Priced Out” Estimates BY NA ZHAO ON JANUARY 24, 2020 • (0) NAHB recently released its 2020 priced out estimates. The new estimates show that, if the median new home price goes up by $1,000, 158,857 households would be priced out of the housing market nationwide. In other words, based on their incomes, 158,857 households would be able to qualify for a mortgage to purchase the home before the price increase, but not afterward. The number of priced out households varies across both states and metropolitan areas, largely affected by the sizes of local population and the affordability of new homes. Among all the states, Texas registered the largest priced out effects that a $1,000 home price increase could push 14,143 households out of the market, followed by Florida (10,274), and California (8,870). The metropolitan area with the largest priced out effect, in terms of absolute numbers, is New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA, where 6,172 households would not be able to qualify for a mortgage to purchase a new medianpriced home if its price goes up by $1,000. This is largely because New York metro area, where the median-priced new home is only affordable to 13.4% of households, is the most populous metro area with 7.4 million households. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI metro area registers the second largest number of priced-out households (4,964), followed by Houston-The WoodlandsSugar Land, TX metro area (4,479). Compared to New York, the median priced homes in Chicago or Houston metro areas are relatively more affordable to begin with. Around 41.6% of households in Chicago and 45% of households in Houston metro area can afford new median -priced homes there. The 2020 NAHB priced-out estimates also demonstrate how rising interest rates can price out households out of the new home market. Around 1.3 million household would no longer afford new median-priced homes if mortgage rates increase from 3.75% to 4% nationwide. More details, including priced out estimates for every state and over 300 metropolitan areas, and a description of the underlying methodology, are available in the full study. Page 18
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TRAILER STICKER SHOCK!!!! Bill Ward, Executive Vice President - Home Builders Association of Illinois How many of you out there have one or more of these trailers for your business or home? Or maybe you have a small trailer to haul a boat or kayak? If you buy one new these trailers, it will cost you $750 to $1000; a used one will run you $250 to $500. In haste to tax Illinoisans the equivalent of our state’s GDP, the Illinois General Assembly and Governor Pritzker raised the annual sticker fee on these lightweight vehicles in 2019 from $18 per year to $118 per year. Wow, that’s a 655% tax hike for sticker renewals in 2020, that’s a lot! Moreover, many of these trailers are seasonal at best. My wife and I own a small boat trailer that is on the road twice per year; once in the spring to take our kayak to the lake; and, once in the fall to bring it back from the lake. Of course, this has me thinking what you might be thinking; how much is the fine for not having the sticker vs. the fee for the sticker? I mean, if I’m running a total of 30 miles per year on my trailer why not just roll the dice and see if I can make the gauntlet between my storage shed and Lake Springfield. As it turns out, the fine is $120, just two bucks over the price of the sticker. But if you’re in a business where you own one or more of these and they are on the road every day, then my advice for breaking the law should not be well taken. Instead, you should call your Illinois State Representative today and ask them to co-sponsor HB4096, a bill to roll back the 2020 fee from $118 to last year’s $18 fee. The bill is being sponsored by Rep. Katie Stuart, a Democrat from Edwardsville. I’ve already reached out to the Illinois Landscape Contractors Association and I must believe they will support the bill. I also think many other groups, be they business or recreational, will jump on board to pass HB4096, as well. But this issue will be no pushover. The revenue from the fee increase goes to the Illinois Road Fund, and we all can agree that Illinois roads and bridges need some major updating. In all seriousness, I believe what happened here was a rush to raise all fees on all renewals without examining the proportion of some of the rate increases. The reason the fee was low to begin with is because many of these vehicles are seasonal and do very little harm to our state and local roads and highways. I think it would be wise for the Governor, the General Assembly, and the Secretary of State’s office to admit this one rate increase (655%) is not in proportion with other fee increases and should roll back the fee to somewhere closer to $18, than to leave it at $118. Page 21
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker didn’t like the talent pool he could attract for $148,000 to be his chief of staff, so he supplemented that salary with $150,000 from his own pocket. All told, he supplemented the salaries of 16 top staffers as part of $3 million he spent on state expenses from his estimated $3.4 billion personal fortune. Private dollars shouldn’t be paying public employees, some lawmakers are saying. One filed a bill to prohibit such moves and another intends to file a bill. Senate Bill 2320 would stop state employees from receiving compensation from Pritzker or any other private person “for work performed within the scope of his or her employment by a State agency.” It was filed Jan. 8 by state Sen. Jason Plummer, R-Edwardsville. Rep. Grant Wehrli, R-Naperville, plans to file a House version. “Are they doubling the salary? Is this a bonus for getting legislation passed? [That] would be of extreme concern, basically, that’s pay for performance when it comes to governance and that would be highly unethical,” Wehrli told The Center Square. He said Pritzker at a minimum should run the salary expenses through his campaign fund so the expenses are publicly disclosed. Besides the ethics there is a practical issue, said Kent Redfield, an emeritus professor of political science at the University of Illinois at Springfield. Taxpayers may save a buck, but the practice creates an expectation that top leaders should be superrich people who pay their own staffers. “It’s my responsibility as a citizen to contribute to the funding of the political system, and there’s no free lunch,” Redfield told the Chicago Tribune. “We can’t offshore the cost of government to a bunch of rich elected officials. It’s corrosive to the idea that it is a collective thing.” Pritzker’s office did not respond to The Center Square’s request for comment, but in late December told the Tribune that the governor “believes the state of Illinois and its people are worth investing in.” His spokesman said the practice was necessary to recruit top talent and would not create a precedent for future governors. Disagreeing was Alisa Kaplan, policy director for Reform for Illinois. “It provides yet another advantage to wealthy officials and candidates and, depending on the use, can create conflicted loyalties and perhaps even increase the potential for corruption,” she told the Tribune. State leaders should act on the following reforms, many of which were recommended in a 2009 state report released as the fourth of Illinois’ past eight governors was about to head to prison: •Adopting revolving door restrictions on state lawmakers becoming lobbyists. •Empowering the Illinois legislative inspector general to investigate lawmaker corruption. As is, this muzzled watchdog office must seek approval from a panel of state lawmakers before opening investigations, issuing subpoenas and even publishing summary reports. •Mandating state lawmakers recuse themselves from votes in which they have a conflict of interest. There is no current state law or even parliamentary rule requiring Illinois lawmakers to disclose a conflict of interest or to excuse themselves from voting on issues where they have personal or private financial interests. •Reforming the Illinois House rules, which grant more concentrated power to the House speaker than any other legislative rules in the country. •Using objective scoring criteria for capital projects, akin to Virginia’s Smart Scale model. This ensures infrastructure dollars are directed by need rather than clout. •Passing a bipartisan constitutional amendment to end politically drawn legislative maps in Illinois. Pritzker may have had good intentions in opening his wallet, but Illinois needs the governor’s leadership on anti-corruption Page 22 BRAD WEISENSTEIN, EDITOR / JANUARY 12, 2020
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6100 West Main Street Maryville, IL 62062 Phone: 618-343-6331 E-mail: tbutler@hbrmea.org Web: www.hbrmea.org Page 24
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