Workforce Development: Growing the talent pipeline is critical to the future of our industry and the economy. The expansion and support to enhance existing programs and building public/private partnerships that can expose young people to the multiple career opportunities in the trades are vital to our initiatives. The days of the four-year degrees and giant student loans are over. Vocational-technical training leads the way to fulfilling and high-paying jobs.

Housing Affordability: Our members are true patriots for housing affordability—they are small business owners under constant attack through unnecessary code changes and increased government regulation. These proposals drive up the cost of home ownership, which keeps Iowans trapped in less-efficient, less-safe existing housing. Policy makers must be able to review proposed and existing regulations to confirm that they do not inhibit our housing affordability.

Government and Regulatory Reform: Our industry is one of the most regulated sectors out there. On a percentage basis, the latest estimates show that regulations imposed by government at all levels account for 23.8 percent of the final price of a new single-family home built for sale. Compared to previous studies, surveying builders and developers separately produced a somewhat different breakdown of the regulatory cost, with 10.5 percent of the final house price attributable to regulation during development of the lot, the other 13.3 percent due to regulation during construction of the single[1]family structure.  Multi-family housing is at 42.6 percent.

Taxation: HBAI seeks to educate policy makers and the public on issues that will keep Iowa competitive and to ensure that future generations of Iowans have the opportunity of economic prosperity through home ownership. Iowa needs substantial reform. The whole system is entirely too complex.