the nail, august, 2014

August, 2014 l The NAIL 1

2 The NAIL l August, 2014


The official magazine ofHome Builders Association

of Middle Tennessee

PresidentMichael Dillon

Vice PresidentTrey Lewis

Secretary/TreasurerRandall Smith

Executive Vice PresidentJohn Sheley

Editor and DesignerJim Argo

StaffConnie NicleyPat Newsome

THE NAIL is published monthly by theHome Builders Association of MiddleTennessee, a non-profit trade associationdedicated to promoting the Americandream of homeownership to all residents of Middle Tennessee.

SUBMISSIONS: THE NAIL welcomesmanuscripts and photos related to theMiddle Tennessee housing industry forpublication. Editor reserves the right toedit due to content and space limitations.

POSTMASTER: Please send addresschanges to: HBAMT, 9007 OverlookBoulevard, Brentwood, TN 37027.Phone: (615) 377-1055.

THE

NAIL


FEATURES

9Now is the time for Millenials

to buy a homeThere are several reasons why now is a

great time for Millennials and other first-time home buyers to start building their American Dream. Here’s the top five!

10LP Building Products Golf Tournament and HBAMT

Summer Blowout!The big event is back! Sign up now to par-

ticipate. Golfers, sponsors and silent auction items are needed. Or just RSVP for the

Friday Night Bash. Act NOW!

DEPARTMENTS

6News & Information

13SPIKE Club Report

14August Calendar

14Chapters and Councils

ON THE COVER:A beautiful day on the fairways at The

Legends Club Golf Course. Sign up now for the LP Building Products Golf Tournament

August 15 and join us there! See pages 10-12 of this issue to register for the tournament and

for other ways to participate.


NEws&INfo

The National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) Remodeling Market Index (RMI) rose three points to 56 in

the second quarter of 2014, regaining the mo-mentum built in 2013. This is the fifth consecu-tive quarter for an RMI reading above 50.

An RMI above 50 indicates that more remodelers report market activity is higher (compared to the prior quarter) than report it is lower. The overall RMI averages ratings of current remodeling activity with indicators of future remodeling activity.

“With many home owners on better financial footing, home remodeling has become more popular,” said NAHB Re-modelers Chair Paul Sullivan, CAPS, CGR, CGP, of Waterville Valley, N.H. “The completion of postponed work has helped remodelers in all regions regain confidence in the remodeling market.”

The RMI’s future market conditions index rose to 56 from 52 in the previous quarter, un-der the strength of an increase in all four of its subcomponents: calls for bids, amount of work committed for the next three months, backlog of jobs and appointments for proposals.

The current market conditions component of the RMI increased three points to 56 this quarter. Remodeling jobs valued at $25,000 or more re-bounded to 54, the same level as the end of 2013. Smaller remodeling jobs and maintenance and repair components performed well this quarter with readings of 56 and 58, respectively.

“The recent improvement in the job market has helped restore remodelers’ confidence af-ter a dip in the first quarter that was probably in part weather-related. As homeowners feel more secure about their economic situation, they become more willing to undertake remod-eling projects—especially larger, discretionary projects,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. “In addition, fewer new home builders are looking to remodeling as a way supplement their revenue, and this has somewhat reduced competition for remodeling projects.”

For more information about remodel-ing, visit nahb.org/remodel.. n

Remodeling confidence regains momentum

With many home owners on better financial footing, home remodeling has become more popular.


Nationwide housing production fell 9.3 percent to a seasonally adjust-ed annual rate of 893,000 units in

June, according to newly released figures from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau. The drop was due primarily to a nearly 30 percent decline in the South. All other regions posted monthly gains.

“A modest 2.6 percent increase in sin-gle-family permits falls in line with the gen-eral optimism that we are hearing from our builders,” said Kevin Kelly, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder and developer from Wilmington, Del.

Single-family housing starts were down 9 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 575,000 units in June, while multifamily production fell 9.9 percent to 318,000 units.

Regionally in June, combined single- and multifamily housing production rose in the Northeast, the Midwest and the West, with re-spective gains of 14.1 percent, 28.1 percent and 2.6 percent. Total production fell by 29.6 percent in the South, the nation’s largest region.

“Take away the South and nationwide housing starts would have been in positive territory this month,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. “This sharp regional decline could be due in part to lots and labor shortages, which are particularly acute in that part of the country. However, the general direction of housing pro-duction is trending upward, and we expect 2014 to be a positive year.”

Issuance of building permits registered a 4.2 percent decline to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 963,000 units in June. Mul-tifamily permits dropped 14.9 percent to 332,000 units while single-family permits increased 2.6 percent to 631,000 units.

The Northeast, South and West registered overall permit losses of 15.5 percent, 6.3 percent and 1.8 percent, respectively, while the Midwest posted a 6.6 percent gain.

Builder confidence reaches milestoneBuilder confidence in the market for new-ly-built single-family homes reached an im-

portant milestone in July, rising four points to a reading of 53 on the NAHB/Wells Fargo Hous-ing Market Index (HMI). Any reading over 50 indicates that more builders view sales condi-tions as good than poor.

“This is the first time that builder confi-dence has been above 50 since January and an important sign that it is strengthening as pent-up demand brings more buyers into the marketplace,” said Kelly.

“An improving job market goes hand-in-hand with a rise in builder confidence,” said Crowe. “As employment increas-es and those with jobs feel more secure about their own economic situation, they are more likely to feel comfortable about buying a home.”

Derived from a monthly survey that NAHB has been conducting for 30 years, the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index gauges builder perceptions of current single-family

home sales and sales ex-pectations for the next six months as “good,” “fair” or “poor.” The sur-vey also asks builders to rate traffic of prospective buyers as “high to very high,” “average” or “low to very low.” Scores from each component are then used to calculate a sea-sonally adjusted index where any number over 50 indicates that more

builders view conditions as good than poor.All three HMI components posted

gains in July. The index gauging current sales condit ions increased four points to 57, while the index measuring expecta-t ions for future sales rose six points to 64 and the index gauging traffic of prospec-t ive buyers increased three points to 39.

The HMI three-month moving average was up in al l four regions, with the North-east and Midwest posting a one-point and two-point gain to 35 and 48, respectively. The West registered a f ive-point gain to 52 while the South rose two points to 51.

Editor’s Note: The NAHB/Wells Fargo Hous-ing Market Index is strictly the product of NAHB Economics, and is not seen or influenced by any outside party prior to being released to the public. HMI tables can be found at nahb.org/hmi. More information on housing statistics is also available at housingeconomics.com. n

Housing production down as builder confidence rises

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) recently announced its new integrated Green Awards program. For the first time, industry professionals have the opportunity to be recognized across several awards programs for their green building accomplishments, rather than en-tering one standalone awards program.

Starting this year, green and sustainable categories have been added to many of NAHB’s industry awards programs, includ-ing the Best in American Living Awards, The Nationals, the 50+ Housing Awards, the multifamily Pillars of the Industry Awards and the Jerry Rouleau Awards for Excellence in Marketing and Home Design for systems-built homes.

Winning a green or sustainable award in any of these programs, means the entrant will be automatically entered into the Best in Green Awards. Best in Green categories include:

• 50+ Home or Community • Single-Family Production Home • Single-Family Custom Home • Multifamily Project • Interior Project • Remodeling Project • Development • Sales and Marketing Strategy • Systems-Built Home

“Green and sustainable building is no longer just a niche, we now see it in near-ly every segment of the building industry,” said NAHB Chairman Kevin Kelly, a home builder and developer from Wilmington, Del. “As such, it made sense to expand the NAHB Green Awards to offer additional opportunities to reward the great work in sustainable building practices we see across the entire industry.”

Winners will be announced on Jan. 21, 2015, during the International Builders’ Show at a new event, Plugging into Per-formance: Best in Green Awards Brunch. In addition, all other green and sustainable award winners from the individual pro-grams will be recognized.

For more information, or to apply for an award, please visit www.nahb.org/gre-enawards. Please contact Jaclyn Toole at [email protected] or 202-266-8225 with any additional questions. n

NAHB revamps its Green Awards for 2014


With the economy and housing market still recovering, some potential first-time home buyers may be hesitant to invest in a

new home. Yet there are several reasons why now is a great time for Millennials and other first-time home buyers to start building their American Dream. 1) Interest rates are low.

Today’s historically low interest rates are helping first-time home buyers find affordable housing options. Average weekly interest rates for a 30-year fixed mortgage remain under 4.5%.

But it’s important to keep in mind that inter-est rates are sensitive to market forces and can change quickly. There’s no indication that rates will suddenly surge upward, but even a slight rate increase can push monthly payments to the point that a buyer might miss out on their first choice for a new home. 2) Huge downpayments are not necessary.

While lenders are looking more closely at borrowers today than in recent years, there are

options for purchasing your first home without a 20% downpayment. For example, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) offers loans to first-time home buyers with downpayments as low as 3.5%. However, these loans require mortgage insurance.

Locally, our state housing finance agency provides consumers with tremendous opportu-nities for purchasing a new home. According to Ralph M. Perrey, executive director of the Tennessee Housing Development Agency, THDA can offer buyers of new homes a six-month lock on the mortgage loan interest rate while the home is completed. “That way there’s no anxiety about rushing into a purchase to beat a potential interest rate jump,” explains Perrey. For more details, including how to easily access this program through local lenders, please visit www.GreatChoiceTN.com.

To ensure that the financing process goes smoothly, buyers should consider pre-qualifying for a mortgage and having a financing commit-ment in place before shopping for a new home. Buyers also may find that some home builders

have arranged favorable financing for their customers or offer financial incentives. 3) New homes are built to fit your lifestyle.

Designed to accommodate today’s busy life-styles, new homes – including urban condos and single-family homes – feature open floor plans, flexible spaces, low-maintenance materials and other amenities that appeal to younger buyers.

With energy costs near the top of consumer concerns, it’s good to know that new homes can be more energy efficient than ever. Innovative materials and construction techniques mean that today’s new homes are built to be much more energy efficient than homes constructed a generation ago. Not only can they be more affordable to operate, new homes also are sig-nificantly more resource efficient and environ-mentally friendly.4) Technology makes shopping for a home fun and easy.

Today’s tech-savvy home buyers use mobile apps to quickly gather all of the key information on a property and to see extensive photos from their cell (continued on page 13)

Top 5 reasons millenials should buy now


Twenty-one SPIKES (in bold) increased their recruitmentnumbers last month. What is a SPIKE? SPIKES recruit new members and help the association retain members. Here is the latest SPIKE report as of June 30, 2014.

Top 20 Big Spikes

Jim Ford 912Virgil Ray 821Bill King 776Mitzi Spann 680Jim Fischer 566Terry Cobb 565John Whitaker 393James Carbine 334Jennifer Earnest 327Dan Stern 306Kevin Hale 286Tonya Jones 271Reese Smith III 260David Crane 247Steve Moody 219Sonny Shackelford 217Davis Lamb 183Cyril Evers 182Jackson Downey 174Tim Ferguson 168

Life Spikes

Jim McLean 164Louise Stark 163Trey Lewis 156Harry Johnson 146Steve Cates 140C.W. Bartlett 138Tonya Alexander 127James Franks 119Steve Hewlett 119Sam Carbine 117Carmen Butner 105Johnny Watson 101Dave McGowan 99B.J. Hanson 98Jeff Zeitlin 87Duane Vanhook 83Jordan Clark 82Julie DuPree 77Erin Richardson 76Jeff Slusher 70John Baugh 68Wiggs Thompson 63Don Bruce 62Jim Ford, Jr. 62Hill McAlister 57Joe Morgan 54Beth Sturm 54John Broderick 53Gerald Bucy 53David Hughes 49Al Davis 47Sheila Rawlings 47Bernie Laine 46Greg Langley 46Lori Fisk-Conners 46Benny Sullivan 46Andrew Neuman 45

Bryan Edwards 44Kay Russell 44John Ganschow 41Peggy Krebs 39Michael Dillon 38David Lippe 38Andy Wyatt 37Chuck Clarkson 36Frank Miller 36Brad Butler 35Al Hacker 34Ray Edwards 32Dan Strebel 32Steve Wheeley 30Alvin Basel 29Christina Cunningham 28

Spikes

Don Mahone 18Marty Maitland 18Jess Dillon 16Tracy Lomax 14Frank Tyree 12Justin Hicks 11Derenda Sircy 11Pam Smith 10Don Alexander 9Randall Smith 6

sPIKE REPoRT

(continued from page 9) phones or tablets. For example, Homesnap allows you to snap a picture of any home and get all the relevant property details, including any interior photos for homes on the market.

If you’re just beginning your search, Realtor.com is a popular app because it gen-erally contains the most accurate information gathered from more than 800 local MLSs (multiple listing services).

Also, check out NewHomeSource.com from BDX. This leading new home website not only lets you search communities and homes from the area’s leading home builders, but also provides articles and other helpful information to guide you through the new home buying process.

“Over 50% of home buyers start the home shopping process with a preference or interest in a new construction home,” said BDX CEO Tim Costello. “New homes offer key advantages for home buyers like con-struction quality, lower cost of ownership, modern floor plans and energy efficiency. NewHomeSource.com is a great place to explore all of these advantages and connect with local home builders.”

If you’re checking out homes in an unfa-miliar area, AroundMe helps you get a quick sense of the neighborhood by telling you the

location of local restaurants, supermarkets, other businesses and attractions.

There also are several free mortgage apps to help you determine how much you can afford and to compare real-time rates from multiple lenders. Popular mortgage calculator apps include Zillow and Trulia.5) Owning a home can help young families build wealth and combat rising rents.

For most Americans, homeownership is a primary source of net worth and is an important step in accumulating personal fi-nancial assets over the long term. Although property values have declined in many markets, Americans have more than $10.8 trillion of equity in their homes, and for most families, home equity represents the largest share of net worth.

At the same time, rent prices continue to climb – 2.8 percent in 2013 – as rental vacancies dropped to their lowest point since 2000, according to a recent report from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. That makes now a great time to start investing in your future – in-stead of your landlord’s.

For more information visit the HBAMT online at www.hbamt.org, or visit the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) at www.nahb.org. n


1 2

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10 11 12 13HBAMT Remodelers

Council meeting

14 15LP Golf Tournament and

Summer Blowout!

16

17 18Dickson County Chapter meeting

19SMC Educational Event

Membership Mixer

20 21 22 23

24 25

Metro/Nashville, Williamson County Chapter meeting

26 27 28 28 28

28 1 2 3 4Sales & Marketing Council meeting

5 6

AUGUsT CALENdAR

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

CHAPTERS

CHEATHAM COUNTY CHAPTERChapter President - Roy Miles: 615/646-3303Cheatham County Chapter details are being planned.Next meeting: to be announced.Chapter RSVP Line: 615/377-9651, ext. 310

DICKSON COUNTY CHAPTERChapter President - Mark Denney: 615/446-2873.The Dickson County Chapter meets on the third Monday of the month, 12:00 p.m. at the Ponderosa Restaurant in Dickson.Next meeting: Monday, August 18.Topic: to be announced. Price: FREE, lunch dutch treat.Chapter RSVP Line: 615/377-9651, ext. 307

MAURY COUNTY CHAPTERMaury County Chapter details are currently being planned.Next meeting: to be announced.Chapter RSVP line: 615-377-9651, ext. 312; for callers outside the 615 area code, 1-800-571-9995, ext. 312

METRO/NASHVILLE CHAPTERChapter President - John Whitaker: 615/843-3300.The Metro/Nashville Chapter meets on the fourth Monday of the month, 11:30 a.m. at the HBAMT offices.Next meeting: Monday, August 25. Guest speaker: Barry Westbrook from DocAir.Price: Builders Free thanks to DocAir; $10 per person with RSVP ($20 w/o RSVP).Chapter RSVP Line: 615/377-9651, ext. 304

ROBERTSON COUNTY CHAPTERNext meeting: to be announced.Robertson County RSVP line: 615-377-9651, ext. 313.

SUMNER COUNTY CHAPTERThe Sumner County Chapter meets on the fourth Tuesday of the month, 11:30 a.m. at the new Hendersonville Library.Next meeting: to be announced.Chapter RSVP Line: 615/377-9651, ext. 306

WILLIAMSON COUNTY CHAPTERChapter President - BJ Hanson: 615/884-4935.The Williamson County Chapter meets on the third Tuesday of the month, 11:30 a.m. at the HBAMT offices.Next meeting: Monday, August 25.Guest speaker: Barry Westbrook from DocAir.Price: Builders Free thanks to DocAir; $10 per person with RSVP ($20 w/o RSVP).Chapter RSVP Line: 615/377-9651, ext. 305

WILSON COUNTY CHAPTERThe Wilson County Chapter meets on the second Thursday of the month, 11:30 a.m. at the Five Oaks Golf & Country Club in Lebanon.Next meeting: to be announced.Chapter RSVP Line: 615/377-9651, ext. 309

COUNCILS

GREEN BUILDING COUNCILCouncil President - Erin Richardson: 615/883-8526.The Green Building Council meets on the fourth Wednesday of the month, 11:00 a.m.Next meeting: to be announced.

Topic: to be announced.Price: free for Green Building Council members pending sponsorship; $20 for non-members with RSVP ($25 w/o).Council RSVP Line: 615/377-9651, ext. 308

HBAMT REMODELERS COUNCILCouncil President - Jason Broderick.The HBAMT Remodelers Council meets on the third Wednesday of the month, 11:00 a.m. at varying locations.Next meeting: Wednesday, August 20.Location: to be announced. Topic: to be announced.Price: free for RMC members with RSVP; $15 for non-members with RSVP ($20 w/o).Council RSVP Line: 615/377-9651, ext. 301

INFILL BUILDERS COUNCILThe Infill Builders meets on the third Thursday of the month, 11:30 a.m. at the HBAMT offices until further notice.Next meeting: to be announced.Council RSVP Line: 615/377-9651, ext. 311

MIDDLE TENN SALES & MARKETING COUNCILCouncil President - Trey Lewis.The SMC meets on the first Thursday of the month, 9:00 a.m. at the HBAMT offices.Next meeting: Tuesday, August 19, 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM. Topic: Special educational event at Piedmont Natural Gas. Kerry Mulcrone presents “Branding Matters to Everyone.”Price: SMC members free thanks to our sponsors (see page three)! ($10 w/o RSVP); $20 for non-members with RSVP ($25 w/o).Council RSVP Line: 615/377-9651, ext. 302.

CHAPTERs & CoUNCILs

the nail, august, 2014

Documents

home remodeling

nail welcomesmanuscripts

prior quarter

previous quarter

smaller remodeling jobs

job market

consecutive quarter

home owners