Homebuilding moratorium is stalling pursuit of affordable housing solution
Staff Reports | Digital Free Press
The Home Builders Association of Central Arizona is calling for Arizona lawmakers to remove a moratorium on home building in the most affordable parts of the Valley.
“The homebuilding industry is a keystone of Arizona’s thriving, but delicate economy and misguided water policies based on faulty assumptions are jeopardizing our future prosperity,” said Jackson Moll, CEO of the Home Builders Association of Central Arizona.
“Sadly, Arizona’s leaders have adopted a policy direction that exacerbates our community’s housing supply and affordability crisis by placing a moratorium on all new home construction outside of designated provider areas.”
In June, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs and Arizona’s water agency enacted a moratorium on approving new homebuilding that relies solely on groundwater despite the fact that since the mid-1990s home builders have continuously put water back into the ground to offset the water used to serve new homes.
There are approximately 200,000 approved homesites being stalled — homebuilding advocates contend — because of this moratorium, which put the brakes on an industry that pumps an estimated $19 billion into the Arizona economy.
“Homebuilding is being targeted despite being a responsible user of our precious water supply, and one of the only industries that replenishes the groundwater supply,” Mr. Moll said in a prepared statement. “We are constantly innovating new ways to conserve our most valuable resource as responsible stewards of our state’s resources for future generations.”
HBACA, an advocacy group for the residential construction and development industry, will be targeting lawmakers with an information campaign reminding Arizonans of the essential role that housing plays in our economy, as well as the urgent need to address our housing affordability crisis in one of the fastest growing cities and counties in the country.
According to the real estate site Redfin, in January 2020 the median Arizona home sale price was $284,600. Today, that the median sales price is $436,200, an unbelievable rise of over 53%.
Since 1951, the HBACA has served as the voice of the residential construction industry.
