NAHB Chairman Discusses COVID-19 Impact on Home Builders

Newly elected National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) chairman, Dean Mon, a builder from Shewsbury N.J., recently spoke with the Associated Press about the building industry and how it will be impacted by the COVID-19 virus pandemic. Economic and housing market trends at the start of the year favored U.S. home builders’ prospects for solid sales in 2020. Sales of new homes rose by the fastest pace in more than 12 years in January, and last month sales of existing homes hit an all-time high. That was then. The NAHB now expects an “incredibly disruptive” second quarter as businesses close and lay off workers. The coming weeks will be key in determining the scale of the decline, but some economists surveyed by the National Association of Realtors® forecast home sales could plunge up to 35% in the coming months.