Jerry Konter, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders, issued the following statement after President Biden spoke about yesterday’s inflation report:
“With inflation continuing to run above an 8 percent annual rate since March, it is truly disingenuous of President Biden to hail the progress his administration is making on the inflation front while totaling ignoring how soaring housing costs that affect every American represents roughly one-third of the total rise in the Consumer Price Index. If President Biden is truly serious about fighting inflation, he needs to address the nation’s growing housing affordability crisis.
“The administration can start by easing building material production bottlenecks that are raising housing costs, reducing burdensome regulations that artificially increase the cost of building apartments and new homes, suspending tariffs on Canadian lumber imports into the U.S. that act as a tax on American home buyers, and encouraging vocational job training programs to ease the acute labor shortage in the residential construction industry.
“Acknowledging and getting serious about tackling the nation’s housing affordability crisis will go a long way to reining in stubbornly high inflation and reduce the economic pain of millions of American families.”
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