Broad Housing Coalition Calls on Lawmakers to Address Rising Insurance Costs
This week, a broad coalition of groups representing America’s housing providers, lenders and residents — including NAHB — sent members of Congress and the Biden administration a letter outlining a number of bipartisan policies to address the causes of rising insurance premiums across the nation’s housing market. The letter focused in particular on the significant negative impacts such increases have had on all stakeholders, including, but not limited to, single-family, multifamily, and affordable housing developers, lenders, investors, owners and renters.
Rising insurance costs are one of several factors that are mostly beyond the control of housing providers, driving price increases. The volatility in the insurance market over recent years hinders the ability of housing providers to deliver the housing that is so desperately needed. Because housing costs are a major driver of inflation, addressing insurance and other operating costs challenges in the rental market will also have positive follow-on effects for the national economy.
Ultimately, the primary objective in this letter is to ensure housing providers can meet the long-term housing needs of the nearly 40 million Americans who live in rental homes and continue to foster the growing contributions rental housing makes to our economy and communities throughout the country.
Read the full comment letter.
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The U.S. labor market rebounded in October, with nonfarm payroll employment increasing by 165,000 jobs and the unemployment rate declining to 4.1%. However, the improvement in overall employment contrasts with continued weakness in residential construction, where employment fell by 16,400 jobs, the largest monthly decline since March 2021.
New multifamily housing confidence weakened year-over-year in the third quarter, according to the Multifamily Market Survey (MMS) by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). The MMS produces two separate indices. The Multifamily Production Index (MPI) had a reading of 41, down five points year-over-year, while the Multifamily Occupancy Index (MOI) had a reading of 69, also down five points year-over-year.
Mortgage application activity declined in October as the 30-year fixed mortgage rate rose sharply again. The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Market Composite Index, a measure of total mortgage application volume, fell 14.1% month-over-month in October on a seasonally adjusted basis. Compared to a year ago, total mortgage applications were 39.8% lower.