NAHB-supported legislation designed to address the severe credit crunch for AD&C financing was introduced by Reps. Gary Miller (R-Calif.) and Brad Miller (D-N.C.) in the House of Representatives on May 5. Your help is urgently needed to build support for the bill among members of Congress — here’s what you can do.

TheHome Construction Lending Regulatory Improvement Act of 2011, H.R. 1755, represents a substantial step forward in the effort to restore the flow of credit to the housing industry. NAHB worked closely with the congressmen in creating this bill, and approximately 500 of our members helped drum up support for the legislation during our annual Legislative Conference, followed by many of our members making in-person visits to their representatives’ home district offices in order to urge support for the legislation during the recently concluded congressional recess. In an official statement released upon the bill’s introduction, NAHB Chairman Bob Nielsen commended Rep. Gary Miller, Rep. Brad Miller, and the bill’s other 29 cosponsors “for championing a legislative solution aimed at ending the freeze in housing production credit that has forced countless home building firms across the nation to shutter their doors, resulting in grave repercussions for job growth and the overall economy.”

***Every member’s help is needed to build support for this critical legislation!
Click hereto find out how you can do your part!***

After many months of hard work to get this bill created and introduced, we are glad to report this significant advancement in our overall AD&C strategy. This bipartisan bill would direct federal and state banking regulators to take specific steps to ensure that financial institutions that provide financing to America’s home builders are permitted to make loans, restore liquidity and provide stable financing to the residential building sector. Specifically, it would: 1) stop arbitrary limitations on banks that keep them from lending more than 100% of their total capital on AD&C loans; 2) require appraisers, lenders and examiners to use the “as-completed” value when assessing loan collateral on projects that have reasonable prospects of reaching completion and bar the use of distressed sales in determining the value of collateral for new loans; and 3) abstain from compelling a lender to call AD&C loans where the builder is current in making payments in accordance with the loan documents. NAHB is now engaged in an aggressive push to build further support for the legislation to move forward, and this will be a central topic of discussion at NAHB’s upcoming Spring Board of Directors Meeting in Washington, D.C. NAHB’s press release and a section-by-section analysis of H.R. 1755 is available on our website. Contact: Scott Meyer (800-368-5242, x8144)