NAHB Urges White House Action on Lumber Prices
WASHINGTON, DC — With builders continuing to grapple with lumber price swings and supply chain disruptions, the National Association of Home Builders has once again appealed to the White House to redouble its efforts to address lumber price volatility and address supply chain bottlenecks for lumber and other building materials.
The Washington, DC-based NAHB this week sent a letter to President Biden, requesting that government officials address three key issues that, if unaddressed, “will severely hamper the ability to provide affordable housing and provide jobs to strengthen the economy,” said the association, which has already conducted several meetings on the subject with top administration officials.
“While lumber prices have fallen precipitously since peaking in mid-May, prices have been moving upward over the past month,” said the 140,000-member NAHB, urging the Biden administration “to make it an important priority to address lumber and building material supply chain issues that are contributing to price volatility and harming housing affordability.”
The NAHB urged U.S. officials address the current congestion at the ports and to “return to the negotiating table with Canada and develop a new softwood lumber agreement that will end tariffs on lumber shipments into the U.S.”
The post NAHB Urges White House Action on Lumber Prices appeared first on Kitchen & Bath Design News.
Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.conduithardware.com/?p=159
NKBA Cites ‘Thirty Under Thirty’ Class of 2022
HACKETTSTOWN, NJ — The National Kitchen & Bath Association has unveiled its Thirty Under 30 Class of 2022.
The program, currently in its tenth year, recognizes talented kitchen and bath professionals under the age of 30. Nominees were evaluated on their career or educational achievements, commitment to excellence in the kitchen and bath industry and leadership within their organizations, according to the NKBA.
The 2022 Class includes: Jessica Bolles, Oasis Showroom/APR Supply, York, PA; Michael Boone, Green Forest Cabinetry, Chesapeake, VA; Andrew Converse, Moen, Cleveland, OH; Alex Dickson, PK Brand Management, Kelowna, BC, Canada; Darla Duncan, Prime Cabinetry, Kennesaw, GA; Hannah Guilford, Heart & Hammer Homes, Fryeburg, ME; Cara Hansen, Triple Dot Design Studio, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Jesse Jarrett, Jarrett Design LLC, Emmaus, PA; Becky Leu, Leu Interiors, Des Moines, IA; Andrea Liston-Jones, Liston Design Build, St. Charles, MO; James McDonald, McDonald Contracting, Arlington, MA; Madelaine Millholland, CASE Design/Remodeling, Bethesda, MD; Basia M’Pinda, Kohler/Williams & Associates, Winnipeg, MB, Canada; Antoinette Nunez, CKBD, F&J Builders, Wilmington, DE; Hannah Pregont, Superior Marketing, Brooklyn, NY; Megan Reed, AKBD, CLIPP, Beyond the Box Inc., Billings, MT. and Kelsey Richter, BDA & Associates, Fishers, IN.
Other Class of 2022 members include: Caitlin Ryan, Fisher & Paykel | DCS Experience Center, New York, NY; Grace Sheehan, CLIPP, Kitchen Doctors, Midlothian, VA; Justyna Skolasinski, AKBD, Crystal Lumber, Crystal Falls, MI.; Amanda Slattery, Artistic Cabinetry, Jackson Lake, NE; Benjamin Stoler, Delta Faucet Co., Indianapolis, IN; AJ Tentler, Delta Faucet Co., Indianapolis, IN; Summerlyn Travis, Strohmaier Construction, Spokane, WA; Hannah Triebel, Sunnyfields Cabinetry, Baltimore, MD; Austin Waldhauser, Kenwood Kitchens, Columbia, MD; Emily-Anne Walker, Ferguson Enterprises, Williamsburg, VA; Patience Whipple, Chariot Plumbing Supply Design, Sandy, UT; Pip Wu, D.I.D, Ferguson/Wolseley, Burnaby, BC, Canada and Shantelle Yablonski, Superior Cabinets, Saskatoon, SK, Canada.
The incoming class will be formally inducted during KBIS 2022 in Orlando, FL, according to the NKBA.
The post NKBA Cites ‘Thirty Under Thirty’ Class of 2022 appeared first on Kitchen & Bath Design News.
‘Strong Growth’ Foreseen for Remodeling Through 2022
CAMBRIDGE, MA — “Strong growth” in home improvement and maintenance expenditures is expected to continue over the coming year, according to the Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA), released last month by the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.
The LIRA projects year-over-year gains in annual improvement and repair spending will reach 9% in the fourth quarter of this year and maintain that pace into 2022. Annual improvement and repair expenditures by homeowners could reach $400 billion by the third quarter of 2022, according to the Joint Center, which warned that “several headwinds” – including the rising costs of labor and building materials, as well as increasing interest rates – “could still taper expected growth.”
“Residential remodeling continues to benefit from a strong housing market with elevated home construction and sales activity and immense house price appreciation in markets across the country,” said Carlos Martín, project director of the Remodeling Futures Program at the Cambridge, MA-based Joint Center. “The rapid expansion of owners’ equity is likely to fuel demand for more and larger remodeling projects into next year.”
In related remodeling market news:
n The U.S. building products market will continue building on its “exponential growth” of the past two years, gaining an additional 2.9% from 2023 through 2025, with the professional sector increasing by 4.6%, according to a newly released forecast by the Home Improvement Research Institute (HIRI). The Indianapolis-based HIRI predicted that the total U.S. building products market will increase by 13% in 2021 over the previous year, with the professional sector growing by 18.2%. The total building products market is forecast to grow an additional 2.3% in 2022, with the professional sector growing by 7.1%, HIRI added.
n Businesses in the residential construction and remodeling sectors anticipate “strong activity” through the balance of 2021, although many companies report steady increases in backlogs since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, along with wait times of nearly three months before new projects can begin, according to the Q4 2021 Houzz Renovation Barometer, a quarterly gauge that tracks market expectations, project backlogs and recent activity among U.S businesses in the construction and architectural/design services sectors. Results of the survey were released last month by Houzz Inc., the Palo Alto, CA-based online platform for home remodeling and design.
“Confidence prevails across the industry through year-end,” said Marine Sargsyan, Houzz senior economist. “We’ve seen some settling of home renovation and design activity following record high performance earlier in the year, yet many businesses are struggling to catch up with heightened demand as they navigate supply chain challenges and labor availability, leading to record-long backlogs.”
n Demand for remodeling remains strong, and remodelers “are doing quite well as long as they can adequately deal with material and labor shortages,” according to the latest Remodeling Market Index (RMI) compiled by the National Association of Home Builders. The NAHB last month released its NAHB/Royal Building Products Remodeling Market Index (RMI) for the third quarter of 2020, posting a reading of 87, up five points from the third quarter of 2020. The finding “is a signal of residential remodelers’ confidence in their markets, for projects of all sizes,” the NAHB said.
“We are seeing strong demand and continued optimism in the residential remodeling market, despite the fact that supply constraints are severe and widespread,” said NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz.
The post ‘Strong Growth’ Foreseen for Remodeling Through 2022 appeared first on Kitchen & Bath Design News.