Jane

NAHB May Be On Its Way To Irrelevance

I personally would love to see the NAHB disappear. Over the years this trade group has pumped many millions into lobbying for causes that ultimately harm consumers and protect bad builders. Good builders have grumbled privately how they think membership in builders groups is useless, just a cost of appearing to be qualified in the public's eyes, like membership in the BBB or local builders associations.

Good builders privately admit the industry has pushed for more and more shortcuts, that seriously shorten the life of new homes and force homeowners to incur many more expenses than they should have to. If only these good builders had taken the reins a long time ago instead of letting their industry become corrupted. If only that kind of money had instead been invested in education on PROPER construction, instead of legally advising members how to protect their assets and avoid liability.

The question is, will the NAHB disappear as they should, re-emerge as some new but equally useless group, or just continue to exist as is?

It's about time good builders again took control of this industry and restored it to respectability. Maybe w/the NAHB out of the way, they can. Restoration of credibility to this industry isn't going to be done by underhanded lobbying and spin. It'll be done by building houses right and honoring their contracts, for each and every customer, every single time. Only those builders who can do that tend to survive downturns, and only those who can do that, should. Most of today's builders, including publicly traded ones, have lost their way and should not be in business. Today's houses are far too often "disposable," the owners just don't necessarily realize it until it's too late.