Key Issues

  • Economic Recovery

    New jobs drive demand for new homes –which in turn create even more jobs in construction and related fields. LBA is supportive of polices that will stimulate job growth throughout the economy.

  • Advancing Energy Efficiency In Residential Construction

    LBA member companies are innovators in the field of energy efficiency. We are active participants in the EPA’s Energy Star Program as well as the DOE’s Builders’ Challenge and Build America Program. Through these programs and others, LBA member companies play a critical role in developing and deploying new construction techniques, materials and products. We are committed to make further strides in energy efficiency and promoting new tools like energy efficiency mortgages that help make energy efficient homes affordable.

  • Promoting Adequate Capital Capacity For Home Mortgages

    Ensuring a stable and affordable market for home mortgages is essential to the health of the nation’s housing market. Given current market conditions, the capacity of the federal housing programs operated by FHA and the GSE’s are of paramount importance.

  • Mortgage Interest Deduction

    Since the creation of the Mortgage Interest Deduction in 1946, home ownership has grown to 66%. During this time, Americans have accumulated roughly $9 trillion in equity in their homes spurring the American economy.

    Policy makers in both parties have long supported robust initiatives to encourage homeownership as a way to increase wealth for working families, strengthen communities and help people achieve the American Dream.

    Having a tax deduction for mortgage interest makes owning a home more affordable. It allows homeowners to have more disposable income for savings or other household expenses. Simply put, limiting or eliminating the deduction will hurt middle-class homeowners and kill the American dream of homeownership for others.

    Help us save the mortgage interest deduction. Contact us today to learn more about this issue and take action to preserve this important deduction.

Being Smart About Making New Homes More Energy Efficient

Statement by Leading Builders of America

 

The national model energy code (International Energy Conservation Code/IECC) developed and published by the International Code Council (ICC) is the blueprint for making new residential and commercial buildings more energy efficient. The code is updated every three years under the ICC’s governmental consensus process and is published by the ICC and adopted by state and local jurisdictions.

For the building community, the 2021 code update is cause for serious concern. Multiple code changes were approved that will increase the cost of a new home by up to $10,000 with only modest savings for consumers. Some of the new requirements have payback periods of over 100 years. Each of these “high-cost-low benefit” code changes were twice rejected during the code development process. They were approved as the result of an unprecedented effort to manipulate the ICC’s governmental online consensus vote. Click here to learn more about this effort https://youtu.be/hQw4YBNOIso

The results of the 2021 code updates have caused the ICC to reevaluate their code update procedures. An ICC appeals board and the Long Term Code Development Committee have both recommended that future updates to the energy code should follow the ICC’s standards development process. The ICC Board of Directors is currently accepting public comment on the proposed change.

Leading Builders of America fully supports the change to a standards development process. We believe this is the only path to developing a conservation code that reduces energy consumption while preserving affordability.

Under the new process, the committee must be balanced and include building code officials, efficiency advocates and builders. They will work collaboratively to develop code changes through an inclusive process with full and transparent input from all interested parties. These processes have been used by the ICC for over 20 years to develop standards for accessibility, modular construction and seismic requirements.

Over the past 20 years, energy consumption by new homes has been reduced by nearly 50%. The challenge facing builders, code officials and policy makers now is how to continue this progress. The current code development process is characterized by conflict, confrontation, and a winner-take-all mindset in a process vulnerable to manipulation.

Future gains in efficiency like integrating renewables, advancing electrification, and reducing the carbon footprint of the built environment require a new approach. The United States is experiencing a housing affordability crisis that is squeezing middle class families and exacerbating the homeless crisis. In our pursuit to address climate change we must ensure that we don’t make the current affordability crisis even worse than it already is.

Only by working together can we advance the cause of efficiency while preserving the affordability of shelter.