The NYSBA board recently passed its budget for 2020 by a vote of 72% — 24%. This budget process was one of the most difficult in the last several years. This is because NYSBA’s 2020 budget includes a $10 dues increase. This is the first increase to NYSBA’s dues in over seven years.
The Executive Committee did not take this increase lightly. We continue to look for ways to cut costs. NYSBA has cut expenses 8 percent over the 2019 budget, and over 20 percent from 2018. We continue to do more with less.
Our first priority as your Association is to represent the interests of the residential construction industry in Albany. As everyone has seen during the last session, our legislative work continues to become more difficult by the day. Even with that, we worked to defeat legislation and regulations that would be devastating to the residential construction industry. NYSBA was a key player in helping to defeat an expansion of prevailing wage into residential construction and also keep fire sprinkler mandates out of new homes and townhouses. These two issues alone could have pushed many in our industry to close their doors or relocate to a friendlier business climate.
Those who attended our October board meeting in Tarrytown saw that we are taking a more aggressive stance in 2020. NYSBA is in front of issues such as prevailing wage, rent control, and contractor registration. These will be some of the bigger topics of concern during the next legislative session. We will be working to make sure that the residential construction industry is at the table when decisions are being made, instead of being left to react to others’ decisions.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at any time.
Sincerely,
Lew Dubuque
Lew Dubuque
NYSBA Executive Vice President
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Reminder - Please use our new address!
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Legislative Update:
Governor Signs “Storm Chaser” Law,
NYSBA Seeks Guidance from AG
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At the end of November, Governor Cuomo signed into law the “Storm Chaser” legislation that NYSBA had opposed over the last three years.
While we support the legislation's intent to protect New York consumers from unscrupulous roofing contractors who are often characterized as storm chasers, this bill has a number of technical problems which create confusion and do not achieve the desired result of protecting consumers. Knowing that, Governor Cuomo still signed the legislation into law.
While we hope to get a chapter amendment passed next year, to correct many of the problems this new law will create; we know more needs to be done now to protect remodelers across New York State.
We have written to the New York State Attorney General to ask for guidance so this new law does not create unnecessary problems for our members. You can find a copy of the letter that we sent to Attorney General Letitia James
here
, and we will be sure to let you know when we receive a response back.
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State Senator George Amedore (Among Others) to Step Down After Next Legislative Session
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State Senator George Amedore, a Capital Region builder and long time advocate of the residential construction industry in New York, has decided not to run for re-election to his seat in 2020.
Amedore’s retirement increases the number of Senate Republicans who will not seek re-election, which now stands at seven members. That list includes Betty Little from Glens Falls, who served as chair of the Senate Housing Committee from 2014-2018,
Michael Ranzehofer of Western New York, Bob Antonacci of Syracuse (won election to a judgeship last month)
,
Rob Ortt and Chris Jacobs of Western New York, and just yesterday, Joe Robach of Rochester
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Save the Date: February Board Meetings
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We will hold our winter Board of Directors Meetings on Thursday February 13th. The meetings will be held at the Clubhouse at Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, NY.
Stay tuned for more information!
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The New York State Code Council met last week in Albany and adopted the 2020 Residential and Energy Code books. The new code will go into effect in either March or April (90 days after the code is published in the NYS Register).
The Code Council also stated that their “Residential Sprinkler Committee” will finally meet in 2020. This committee will discuss the potential pros and cons of implementing a fire sprinkler mandate in one- and two-family homes or townhouses in the next code (roughly 2023). NYSBA has representation on the sprinkler committee and will continue the fight to keep sprinkler mandates out of New York’s residential code.
Code Council staff also discussed their reasoning for not taking Appendix D out of New York’s code (by reference), but admitted there are definitely conflicts between Appendix D-section 107.1 and various other regulations. The council staff recommended that the best way to address this issue is through the variance process.
NYSBA, through the urging of our members, was the only group that had been pushing this issue
and are happy the council staff addressed this.
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Excellent but extremely limited sponsorships of this event are available.
Please call Vicki Miller at 518-465-2492 to discuss options.
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The U.S. Census Bureau maintains incredible amounts of data on our industry as a whole. Here are some interesting insights from new housing construction in 2018:
Highlights of Annual 2018 Characteristics of New Housing
Of the 840,000 single-family homes completed in 2018:
- 783,000 had air-conditioning.
- 84,000 had two bedrooms or less and 376,000 had four bedrooms or more.
- 31,000 had one and one-half bathrooms or less and 306,000 homes had three or more bathrooms.
- 336,000 had a heat pump. Of these, 324,000 were air-source and 12,000 were ground-source.
- 778,000 were framed in wood and 59,000 were framed using concrete.
- 270,000 had a patio and a porch, while 69,000 had no outdoor features.
The median size of a completed single-family house was 2,386 square feet.*
Of the 345,000 multifamily units completed in 2018:
- 150,000 had one bedroom and 35,000 had three bedrooms or more.
- 341,000 were conventional apartments and 3,000 were townhouses.
- 216,000 were in buildings with four floors or more.
- 302,000 had individual laundry facilities and 28,000 had shared laundry facilities.
- 235,000 were in buildings framed in wood and 31,000 were in buildings framed in steel.
The median size of multifamily units built for rent was 1,081 square feet, while the median of those built for sale was 1,414 square feet.
Of the 12,000 multifamily buildings completed in 2018:
- 3,000 had 4 floors or more.
- 2,000 had 50 units or more.
- 6,000 were heated by a heat pump.
- 10,000 had wood framing.
Of the 617,000 single-family homes sold in 2018:
- 548,000 were detached homes and 69,000 were attached homes.
- 278,000 had three bedrooms.
- 380,000 were heated using gas.
- 461,000 were purchased using conventional financing and 39,000 were purchased using cash.
- 172,000 had stucco as the primary exterior wall material.
- 556,000 had wood framing.
The median sales price of new single-family homes sold in 2018 was $326,400, while the average sales price was $385,000.
The median size of a new single-family home sold in 2018 was 2,435 square feet.
119,000 contractor-built single-family homes were started in 2018.
The median contract price was $281,200.
*According to
Zillow
,
today’s new single-family home is roughly a third larger than it was 30 years ago, up to a median of 2,386 square feet in 2018 from 1,810 in 1988. But it’s also true that between 2015 and 2018 (despite a very slight increase between ’16 and ’17) the typical square footage of those homes fell from 2,467 to 2,386 – the largest such drop since at least 1988.
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Richard Savino CIC, CPIA
Managing Partner
Broadfield Group
(845) 986-2211
(845) 470-2180 (direct)
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Have an idea for a newsletter story, or is your company or local association doing great things we should know about? Drop us a line at
[email protected]
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