Home builders lobbied for housing aid in 3Q

The home building industry's trade association spent $852,689 lobbying in the third quarter in support of bills aimed at propping up homeowners facing foreclosure and making it easier for would-be homeowners to buy, according to a recent disclosure form.

Among the bills backed by the National Association of Home Builders were measures intended to expand housing affordability, prevent foreclosures, restore seller-financed down payment assistance for homebuyers and stimulate the economy, according to the form filed Oct. 20 with the House clerk's office.

Builders have been hurting from the combination of falling home prices, less demand for new and preowned homes, tighter lending standards and a torrent of foreclosed properties competing for buyers.

Major public builders such as D.R. Horton Inc., Lennar Corp., and Toll Brothers Inc., have seen their stocks hammered as housing woes have deepened.

The Washington D.C.-based association has been pressing for lawmakers to enact an economic stimulus package with incentives for homebuyers, arguing that the best way to quell the U.S. financial crisis and prospects of a recession is to stabilize falling home prices and spur homebuying.

Builders contend that a housing stimulus package signed into law by President Bush this summer failed to spark the kind of homebuying spree many builders had hoped for. They say the plan's temporary $7,500 tax credit for first-time homebuyers was ill-conceived because it essentially worked out to a 15-year, interest-free loan.

Builders have also decried the cancellation this month of programs that let sellers channel down payment money to cash-strapped homebuyers via charities. The programs were eliminated by Congress because homebuyers who used them had high default rates.

Among the measures backed by the builders group in the third quarter was a bill that would reinstate such programs.

The trade group, which says its member companies account for about 80 percent of all new U.S. homes built annually, also lobbied on legislation dealing with climate change, energy issues and other matters in the July-September period.

The NAHB, whose members include Miami-based Lennar Corp., Los Angeles-based KB Home and Dallas-based Centex Corp., spent $3.2 million lobbying last year.

In addition to lobbying Congress in the third quarter, the trade association also lobbied the departments of Labor, Energy, Commerce, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, Education, Transportation, Agriculture and Justice, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Kelly Pike, who worked as a legislative assistant to former Rep. Mark Green, R-Wis., and Erin Tario, formerly of the Labor Department, were among those lobbying on behalf of the home builder's group.

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