NORTH TEXAS HOMEBUILDERS ASSOCIATION
4410 Fairway Boulevard Wichita Falls, TX 76308
Volume 10, No. 11 • November 2017
P: 940.692.2211 F: 940.692.2214
www.nthba.com
From the President Once again the North Texas Home Builders Association has inducted new Officers and Directors. I am honored to be able to serve a second term as President of the Association. I am looking forward to continuing in the advancement of the Association with the expectation of greater things to come. As noted in the committee reports you will find some fascinating things that are already in the works. With the guidance and talent of each committee chairman and the committee members who volunteered to serve on these committees, I know the NTHBA will be proud of the accomplishments they will see in 2018. If you have any ideas or suggestions for the North Texas Home Builders Association, please feel free to contact any of the committee members or myself, so we are able to work on your behalf. We are always trying to find the best way to communicate and network with one another, as well as put together fun ways to socialize and raise funds for the association. The involvement of all members to further the advancement of the NTHBA is encouraged and greatly appreciated. It is my desire for our current membership to engage with new members to help welcome them into the association. Membership is the life blood of our association, and I would like to challenge everyone to consider bringing in at least one new member. It is imperative we keep our membership growing and evolving with the ever changing New Home construction industry. Growing our association membership base at the State and local levels helps bolster our voice with local, State, and National governance. We can be triumphant in numbers when it comes to proposed industry and regulatory changes. Maintaining affordable housing is critical for the continued economic success of Texas and our local area.
Special Thanks to our 2017 NTHBA Partners: Diamond Atmos Energy Platinum Union Square Credit Union Gold First National Bank of Wichita Falls
What’s
INSIDE • Dates To Remember • Howard College Breaks Ground • Business Boosting Education • NTHBA Members Attend Annual SMAC Dinner • Christmas Party Information
November Birthdays Kim Holly.........................................................1 John Ferguson...............................................5 Ford Swanson..............................................11 Steve Lane...................................................13 John Harmon...............................................17 Kyle Streich..................................................18 Tommy Johnson..........................................22 Chuck Dennis..............................................23 Bill McGregor...............................................23 Stephen Turner............................................24 Dave Clark...................................................27 Brad Davidson.............................................28 Happy Birthday!
Renewals 2017 Dates to Remember Nov. 16-17, TAB Committee & Board Meetings, Austin, TX. Nov. 23, Thanksgiving Dec.7, Annual Christmas Party, Coyote Ranch Resort Dec.24, Christmas Eve Dec.25, Christmas Day
2017 Calendar of Events Publications & Communications...........................Nov. 7 Committee Meeting.............................................9:00AM
Breegle Abbey Carpet & Floor...Bobby Diltz Dennis Company....................Chuck Dennis Douglas Custom Homes......Doug McCulloch Ferguson Enterprises, Inc.......Frank Schmidt First Bank.....................................Donnie Park Garnel Construction..................Jose Garcia The Ember Shop...............Johnnie McClane Thanks for Renewing!
Welcome New Members Wells Fargo Bank.........................Debra Walser Welcome!
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Membership, Meetings & Education....................Nov. 7 Committee Meeting...........................................10:00AM
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Parade of Homes & Special Events ......................Nov. 8 Committee Meeting...........................................10:00AM Budget & By-Laws..................................................Nov. 15 Committee Meeting...........................................10:15AM Board of Directors..................................................Nov. 15 Meeting................................................................11:00AM TAB Fall Committee..........................................Nov. 16-17 & Board Meetings.......................................Office Closed Thanksgiving...........................................................Nov. 23 ......................................................................Office Closed
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2801 Kell East
Phone (940) 692-5734
Wichita Falls
Fax (940) 692-0391
Texas 76308
Lane Landes, Owner
tco@wf.net
Business-Boosting Education is Virtually Everywhere Just one of the many benefits NAHB members enjoy is the opportunity to join industry councils and participate in exclusive events. Last month alone, the Federation’s councils hosted several webcasts on a variety of subjects unique to their members’ business interests. For example: • NAHB Remodelers Chairman Dan Bawden presented “The Top 10 Legal Pitfalls for Remodelers.” Armed with a law degree, Bawden discussed different legal clauses that should be include in every remodeler’s contract. • The 55+ Housing Council hosted a presentation about which design trends are making the biggest impact on the industry. Topics included floorplans, amenities and sales strategies to appeal to the rapidly growing aging-in-place market. • The National Sales and Marketing Council‘s webcast series featured “Techniques and Strategies for Purposeful Branding.” Featured presenter Dennis O’Neil of O’Neil Interactive showed how a well developed brand can help edge out competitors and increase referrals. • The Building Systems Councils produced its eighth virtual presentation this year as part of its Lunch-N-Learn webcast series, illustrating the high-performance and cost-saving benefits found in systems built housing. If you’re interested in joining an NAHB council and taking advantage of the member benefits, including webcasts like these, visit nahb.org for more information.
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Felicia Wright, TAB’s Associate Director of Legislative & Political Affairs reports on the 85th legislative session and installs 2017/2018 Officers & Directors. October marks the time of year for the NTHBA to Install the Officers & Directors for the upcoming year. It was a great pleasure to have someone as passionate about the home building industry as Felicia Wright to drive to Wichita Falls from Austin to speak to our members and install our Officers & Directors at the October 5th general membership meeting. Kolter Lukert took care of association business by reading the announcements prior to introducing the guest speaker Felicia Wright. Felicia serves as the Associate Director of Legislative & Political Affairs for the Texas Association of Builders, she develops and executes initiatives to increase the effectiveness of TAB’s legislative advocacy efforts. She is also a registered lobbyist and is responsible for establishing and maintaining effective relationships with public officials, key stakeholders and association members; providing analysis on legislative priorities and reports to TAB task force groups; implementing strategic grassroots campaigns; and tracking political elections. Felicia writes the Legislative Line e-newsletter and is a contributor to the Texas Builder magazine. Prior to joining TAB in 2013, Felicia served as a legislative director for a Texas House of Representative and Chairman, a policy analyst for a State Senator, and a committee clerk for the Senate Committee on Veteran Affairs and Military Installations. Felicia received her Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies from Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. She said we have had an impressive amount of people that served or are serving from Wichita Falls: Rex Tellerson, 69th U.S. Secretary of State, Congressman Mac Thornberry, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Graham Purcell, Continues on page 5
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U.S. Rep (D) 62-73, Frank Ikard – U.S. Rep. 51-61, William Conner, Federal Judge (1920-2009), Frank Ikard – U.S. Rep. 51-61, William Conner, Federal Judge (1920-2009), Frank Kell Cahoon – Texas Representative, Senator Craig Estes, Rep. James Frank and several Governor nominees: Paul Eggers ( 68-70), Orville Bullington (32), Governor Abbott. Felicia is an asset for Texas HBA’s keeping them informed on legislative issues to be aware of that will or can be heading to the state capital during legislative sessions. Felicia began with telling members builders are the heart of the community, and so are each and every member that is involved with the making, selling and protection of a home. Builders work directly, one on one, with people. When their builder is knowledgeable about the issues that affect the price of their home, they know their builder is involved with a group that is taking action to protect them. This is one of the major benefits of being a member of a home builders association, you have access to resources at TAB and NAHB. Felicia told the audience how she specifically takes information and makes it simple for what members need to know. Issues that TAB watched during the 85th legislative session and had an impact on included: Linkage Fees, the tree bill, annexation and a bill that was extremely important a bill James Frank had mentioned at last month’s meeting regarding the Wind Farms. Other items Felicia mentioned were Title Insurance that TAB worked with the Title Insurance Association to halt proposals that would change the system of pricing and producing title insurance. By halting these proposals, homebuyers and commercial developers continue to be able to buy title insurance at rates 15% lower today than 25 years ago. In 2015, TAB stopped the repeal of Residential Fire Sprinkler Installation Prohibition. Current law, as passed in 2009, prohibits cities from mandating fire sprinkler in new one or two story homes. This saved consumers in Texas over $410 million. Felicia continued to enlighten members of the Water Task Force that has been set up and continue to move forward helping areas with future planning for water resources. Other task force that work on policy proposals related to Property Owner
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Associations, worker misclassifications and lien laws. She encourages members to join these task force if any of the topics interest them. Another big item TAB had a big influence on is Energy Code Updates & Reasonable Compliance Standards. TAB proactively passed a bill in 2015 that established a 6 year minimum cycle for energy code updates for residential construction. Felicia not only mentioned the things TAB has worked on for builders but said NAHB is currently working on tax reform and is aggressively fighting to ensure the business interest deduction stays in place. She mentioned NAHB has testified before the U.S. International Trade Commission to provide the home builder prospective on selecting lumber for certain structural lumber applications during home construction. These testimonies were triggered in response to the changes in the market prices of softwood lumber that came about from the expiration in Oct. 2015 of a nine year softwood lumber agreement between the U.S. and Canada. In addition to legislation, TAB is engaged in regulatory and legal issues that affect homebuilding. TAB has been involved in several legal cases in defending housing including numerous cases protecting coverage issues for builders in Construction General Liability policies, winning the Helotes case that prevented cities from implementing building codes and fees in an ETJ and winning several vested rights cases in protecting the grandfathering of projects. In conclusion Felicia gave a scenario saying if the licensing for builders issue came up, builders are fortunate TAB is able to ensure the licensing would be to the industry’s preference rather than the government deciding those factors on the builder behalf. Felicia reiterated the importance of membership, in order to have the voice that it takes to be heard on a state and national level. She said it is also important to stay informed by reading the emails that are sent out regarding issues and especially act upon the call to actions and attend Rally Day. Another is to continue the personal relationships with our elected officials. With that said, she informed us that Craig Estes will be coming up for reelection
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and this year he has an opponent that is not from Texas. If we want to keep him in office it will be important for us to campaign for him. After speaking to the members, Felicia asked the elected Officers & Directors for 2017/2018 to come up and the Oath of Office was read and they were all sworn in. Michael Grassi showed his appreciation to the Officers & Directors for 2016/2017 by giving each one a gift while Barney Brock presented Michael Grassi with a Presidents plaque and gavel.
Long time NTHBA member Charles Barr gave a presentation encouraging members to vote for him on November 7th. Charles is running for Councilor at Large. Charles said if elected, he would be an advocate for the home building industry and what is best for Wichita Falls.
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Committee Reports Membership, Meetings & Education – met on October 10th to acquaint themselves with the task that lie ahead. First was the Christmas Party which is scheduled for Dec. 7th at the Coyote Ranch Resort. Their goal is to reconfigure a mystery dinner that will allow all members who attend to participate. They also discussed partnership levels along with speakers for 2018. Parade of Homes & Special Events – met on October 11th with the 2018 Parade of Homes being their focal point. Their goal was to set dates and deadlines. It is important for this task to get completed as soon as possible to allow builders to begin planning their parade entries. The 2018 Parade of Homes will be June 1st, 2nd & 3rd & 8th 9th 10th. Deadline for Parade Home entries is April 3rd. Late entries will be penalized $250.00 and will not be received later than May 1st. All information to build the builders page in the housing guide must be turned in no later than May 1st. Final picture for parade homes must be in no later than May 15th 10 AM. All print ready
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ads will need to be turned in no later than May 1st and any that need to be built must have information turned in by April 15th. Please note these deadlines are important in order to get pages built, proofed and placed for printing. The housing guide will be sent out for printing on May 15th. Ticket prices will remain $10.00. The committee briefly discussed the kick off lunch and annual golf tournament for 2018. Government Affairs – met on October 12th. The committee was updated on the proposed changes to subdivision and development regulations from the city and discussed the outcome of the 85th legislative session. It was announced the TAB Fall meetings will be November 16th & 17th. Please watch for and read emails and newsletters as well as the web site and Facebook for information pertaining to the NTHBA. The Original Since 1921
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Howard College breaks ground on Construction Trades building by Michelle Gaitan, San Angelo Standard-Times
SAN ANGELO — Texas needs more tradespeople, and Howard College is ready help build up that workforce. The San Angelo campus on Thursday held a groundbreaking ceremony for a lab center that will serve students in its new construction trades program. The groundbreaking was the next step in an effort that began in 2015 with the help of the Home Builders Association of San Angelo, which identified a need for construction trades in the community, said Jamie Rainey, the college’s workforce and community development officer. “There’s a shortage of people going into that field, whether that’s framing or doing sheetrock or electrical or plumbing or all the above,” she said. “There’s just a shortage of people going into that industry. We asked if we could partner with them to look at and explore the option of a construction trades program at Howard College.” The 5,200-square-foot Construction Trades Center will house labs with open indoor and outdoor space for students, and the main campus will be used for classroom lectures. The new program will be offered in addition to other trade curriculum at the college, such Continues on page 11
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Helping Build Our Community Since 1907
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NTHBA Members Attend SMAC Annual Dinner Once again many of the NTHBA members were represented at the Sheppard Military Affairs Committee’s annual dinner. The dinner allows everybody to socialize, meet and greet outside of the business setting. This year’s dinner featured Lt. Gen. Mark C. Nowland who is the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, in Washington, D.C. He is responsible to the Secretary of the Air Force and the Chief of Staff for formulating policy supporting air, space, cyber, and irregular warfare, counter proliferation, homeland security and weather operations. As the Air Force operations deputy to the Joint Chief of Staff, the general determines operational requirements, capabilities and training necessary to support national security objectives and military strategy. SMAC President Glen Barham said the Lt. General is the 2nd in command and having him in town is a big deal since he makes a lot of decisions regarding bases and over 50 % of all pilots in the Air Force are trained at SAFB. Lt General Nowland gave a basic overview of what is happening in the military beginning with the rebuilding military forces to the fight on ISIS. He mentioned the current administration will be allocating more funds going directly to growing the military. The information given by the speaker was very encouraging as well as educational.
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as automotive maintenance technology and industrial production technology, or HVAC. Students who complete the nine-month construction trades course will earn a Certificate 1. “The curriculum revolves around seven classes that show students how to read a tape measure, blueprints and building codes, and the rest of the five classes is all hands-on,” said Terri Nix, dean of career and technical education. “The project for each class is to build a tiny home,” she said. “They are going to get a little bit of drywalling, roofing, construction and plumbing and electrical. So they are going to have a very well-rounded certificate when they finish.” A crowd of community leaders, Howard College staff and others took part in Friday's small ceremony, held in a parking lot next to the new center's site. Among those in attendance were Mayor Brenda Gunter, Rep. Drew Darby — who both addressed the crowd — and County Judge Steve Floyd. Michael Biggerstaff, chairman of the Howard College San Angelo Construction Trades Committee and Texas Builders Foundation, spoke about the need for workers in what he called an “aged workforce” of skilled tradesmen, and he touted the opportunity the program offers students. “Not every child that finishes high school goes on to college to get a formal education,” he said. “And the options for those kids are extremely limited today. What we’re trying to do is give them options to make a living wage. The construction trades will do that.”
Lots: Record-High Prices, Record-Low Sizes
Prices have never been higher, and sizes have never been smaller. Recent NAHB analysis of Census Bureau data revealed the median lot value in 2016 was $45,000, matching the record high set the year prior. The previous high mark was $43,000 set in 2006. Another record setter was the median lot size of homes sold in 2016, which dropped to an all-time low of 8,562 square feet (less than one-fifth of an acre). A variety of factors come into play such as local zoning regulations, land availability and housing demand. But regardless of their location, most builders are feeling the pinch. “Land prices are just getting asinine,” said a production builder in Utah, who asked to remain anonymous. “There’s a bubble out there, and it’s not in homes — the bubble is in land because that’s where people are getting ridiculous.” The builder admits that even though his margins are “not even close to where they were Continues on page 12
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Construction of the center is expected to begin within two weeks, with an anticipated goal of competition before classes began in March 2018. The San Angelo Health Foundation awarded the college foundation $74,044 to help cover the cost of construction, and about 22 local companies committed $380,000 worth of in-kind labor and material donations. The college’s foundation and HBA contributed $10,000 each for the program, and Rainey said they are working with the Concho Valley Workforce Development Board and the City of San Angelo Development Corp. to apply for more grants to help cover the expense of tools, equipment, possible scholarships for students and an instructor salary for this first year. Construction is projected to cost $550,000-$600,000. “It’s a grassroots effort, and there’s been an amazing support from the community to have this program at Howard College,” Rainey said. “To me that’s what a community college is all about — we’re about community. “We love to partner with our communities and meet whatever the training needs are that our community is identifying, and this is definitely one in our community.”
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back in ’04 and ’05,” business is still very good. As one of the top builders in his market, he’s building more than 500 homes annually despite the current cost and availability constraints for lots. “There’s massive demand right now, but very little of it is for the large, expensive homes,” the builder said. “It’s mostly for the more affordable stuff because we’re seeing a lot of interest from younger buyers. But keeping prices low is becoming extremely difficult to do.” For this builder — and for many like him across the country — finding municipalities that will allow higher-density developments is one of the biggest hurdles to building affordable housing and generating stronger profits. However, that entry-level segment of the market is often where demand is strongest. “[Demand] just isn’t there for half-acre lots; it’s simply too expense to develop,” the builder said. “When I hear some of these prices, I [want to say], ‘Are you kidding me? You’re paying that per acre and at that density?’ It reminds me of ‘05 and ’06, to the point I’m backing out on deals because I just won’t pay that amount.” “I don’t know how or when, but it’ll slow down eventually. And when it does, a lot of [builders] are going to get stuck.” Go to eyeonhousing.org for more in-depth analysis of declining lot sizes and rising lot prices.
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