Housing News Looking Up in Lafayette

Dr. Elliot Eisenberg, Senior economist for the National Association of Home Builders, is visiting Lafayette today with the latest results of an economic impact study.  Eisenberg joined "Mornings With Ken and Bernie" to share some of that information.

Eisenberg says, "The results show that home building is more than paying its own way and should put to rest the notion that existing home owners are subsidizing new home construction here in the Lafayette area.  This is an excellent result and tells me that local residents should be thanking the building industry for footing the bill for a lot of city services."

Dr. Eisenberg says he studied the construction phase, the ripple effect and the occupancy phase.  He says he then adds up the three phases and uses those numbers to show a compare and contrast when it comes to things like education, police and fire protection, utilities and parks and recreation.  He also compares the costs with the costs of constructing or rehabilitating roads in the area of new homes.

According to the records of Eisenberg's study and information from the Acadian Home Builders Association, during 2011, the actual building of homes meant that more than 1000 people were put to work in our area.  Eisenberg adds that those jobs created millions of dollars in local tax revenue, and it says it also meant that 100 million dollars in local salaries were paid.  Eisenberg says the ripple ripple effect on our local and surrounding economies is huge.

The president of the Acadian Home Builders Association, Mike Thompson, says in a press release, " It is important for us to look closely at these numbers.  We've been saying for a long time that local home builders are doing their part to build community, and these numbers show that we are a very important player in the overall economic health of our economy".

Dr. Eisenberg says the NAHB model that they use to look at the economic impact of the housing industry on a community was first put together in 1997, and he says it has been applied to some 600 areas across the country to equate what their market means to their bottom line.  He says the particulars of this study was to look at a figure of 912 average priced homes in Lafayette Parish for last year.  He says the numbers are amazing, and the impact that home builders have on the economy locally is comparable to Schumacher Group for example.