Heat

Arecord heat wave is causing the mercury to hit triple digits on many jobsites across the country. Ensuring employees and contractors are regularly hydrated and protected from the sun during hot months is essential to the health and safety of workers.

NAHB’s Heat Stress Safety Toolkit can help members be prepared to take precautions to protect against possible heat

Employers and workers should be sure to have plans in place to provide access to plenty of water and take adequate breaks when needed, as well as access to shade or cool-down areas. Employers and workers should also consider shifting work schedules to times of day when temperatures are lower, such as early morning to midday.

This summer, the Las Cruces Home Builders Association (LCHBA) helped its local community stay cool. The HBA delivered popsicles, cold water and sunglasses to residential construction workers on jobsites. The drop-ins were an opportunity to help workers cool down, but also show appreciation for their hard work, said Nicole Perez, executive officer, LCHBA.

To access the heat safety toolkit and other safety resources, visit nahb.org.

Homeowners Don’t Want to Sell, So the Market for Brand-New Homes Is Booming

By Nicole Friedman | Wall Street Journal

After mortgage rates shot up last year, Ivory Homes, one of Utah’s largest builders, suddenly had few buyers for the hundreds of homes it had under construction. So, Clark Ivory, the chief executive, laid off 9% of his staff, and by January he had slashed construction by nearly 80% from its 2022 peak.

Then, much to his surprise, sales of new homes started picking up. By May, even though mortgage rates weren’t really budging, sales for all home builders were at their highest level since early 2022. Millions of American homeowners have been reluctant to sell because they can’t afford to give up the low mortgage rates they have now. Only 1.08 million existing homes were for sale or under contract at the end of May, the lowest level for that month in National Association of Realtors data going back to 1999.

For many would-be buyers—in Utah and in many other markets—new construction has become the only game in town. Newly built homes accounted for nearly one-third of single-family homes for sale nationwide in May, compared with a historical norm of 10% to 20%. Existing-home sales in May fell 20% year-over-year, while new single-family home sales that month rose 20% on an annual basis.

this year. The S&P Homebuilders Select Industry stock index is up 39.8% this year as of Tuesday’s close, outpacing the S&P 500’s 18.6% gain. Share prices for D.R. Horton, Lennar, and PulteGroup, the three largest home builders, have performed even better.

The pandemic stoked an especially broad housing boom in 2020 and 2021. Many buyers sought larger spaces to spend more time at home, while others wanted to move closer to family. Ultralow interest rates made it inexpensive to finance their purchases.

Home-building activity surged. Mountain West states such as Utah became attractive destinations during the pandemic for people leaving expensive West Coast cities in search of a lower cost of living and an outdoors lifestyle. Home prices in the Salt Lake City area soared 53% between January 2020 and May 2022, on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to Freddie Mac’s home-price index.

That divergence is yet another example of how this housing market is behaving like no other. “It’s such a rare thing,” said Rick Palacios Jr., director of research at Irvine, Calif.-based John Burns Research & Consulting, who predicts the disparity will widen in coming months.

So far, the home-building revival, coupled with financial incentives offered by builders, is providing only minor relief to prospective buyers. Builders aren’t erecting enough homes to offset the shortage of existing ones on the market, meaning buyers in many places still face bidding wars. On a national basis, home prices have only declined a small amount from their record highs in spring 2022. Interest rates have risen in recent weeks to their highest level this year.

For builders like Ivory, though, it has been a lifeline. Builder confidence, which declined every month in 2022, has risen for seven straight months to its highest level since June 2022, according to the National Association of Home Builders.

Investors believe the home-building industry—one of the most sensitive to changes in interest rates—has already gone through its recession and is coming out the other side.

Publicly traded home builders have reported stronger-than-expected results

Family-owned Ivory Homes, which was founded by Ivory’s father, Ellis Ivory, has been one of Utah’s top home builders for decades. Clark Ivory, 58 years old, became CEO in 2000.

In 2006, around the peak of the last boom, Ivory got worried about speculative investing. Ivory Homes started buying less land and paying off debt. To avoid selling to flippers, the company required buyers to sign an agreement that they were purchasing their homes as primary or secondary residences and that they wouldn’t sell for at least a year.

U.S. home prices fell 27% between mid2006 and early 2012, sending ripples throughout the global economy and world financial markets. Ivory Homes stayed profitable between 2008 and 2012, Ivory said.

The pandemic-driven housing boom, Ivory said, didn’t involve as much speculation. Lending standards have improved, and investors have been buying homes to rent out to tenants, not to flip. During the pandemic boom, builders also faced obstacles they didn’t last time around, which kept them from overbuilding: supply-chain issues and labor shortages added weeks or months to their construction timelines. Ivory said his biggest concern, however, is affordability.