NAHB Mourns the Passing of Texas Builder Oliver “Sam” Clark Jr.
NAHB mourns the passing of three-time East Texas Builders Association (ETBA) president Oliver Heartsill “Sam” Clark Jr. Clark, 70, passed away on Jan. 9, after a year-long battle with pancreatic cancer.
As the owner of Classic Homes in Longview, Texas, Clark was highly respected in his community. He was also an ETBA and NAHB Life Director, having served more than a decade with the associations.
A graduate of Marshall High School and Texas Christian University, Clark is survived by his wife of 39 years, Mary, his children and grandchildren.
A celebration of Clark’s life will be held on Jan. 15, at the ETBA’s Event Center that he built in 2009. Donations may also be made in Clark’s name to ETBA’s scholarship fund.
Latest from NAHBNow
Housing Affordability
Oct 21, 2025
The Fight for Housing Affordability: NAHB Spotlights Key HurdlesNAHB CEO Jim Tobin recently appeared on the Builder Straight Talk podcast to highlight the housing affordability hurdles builders face in the current market, and how the Federation is working at the local, state and national levels to address them.
Sponsored Content
Oct 21, 2025
Why Builders Overpay for Land and How to Protect Your MarginsLand is the single largest cost driver in any home building project. But even experienced acquisition teams sometimes overpay. This is often the result of a lack of context and outdated data.
Latest Economic News
Economics
Oct 20, 2025
Non-Conventional Financing for New Home Sales Loses Ground in 2024Nationwide, the share of non-conventional financing for new home sales accounted for 31% of the market per NAHB analysis of the 2024 Census Bureau Survey of Construction (SOC) data. This is 1.7 percentage point lower than the 2023 share of 32.4%. As in previous years, conventional financing dominated the market at 69.3% of sales, higher than the 2023 share of 67.6%.
Economics
Oct 17, 2025
Better Growth, Larger Deficits: CBO Fiscal OutlookThe Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is a key nonpartisan score keeper that measures the effects of policy changes by the Federal Government. With several policy changes since January of this year, including the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), stricter immigration, and higher tariffs, the CBO updated its economic projections through 2028.
Economics
Oct 16, 2025
Amid Market Challenges, Builder Expectations Rise in OctoberEven as builders continue to grapple with market and macroeconomic uncertainty, sentiment levels posted a solid gain in October as future sales expectations surpassed the 50-point breakeven mark for the first time since last January.