President Trump has signed a proclamation that halts immigrants from entering the U.S. for the next 60 days.

However, the measure includes broad exceptions and will not effect the entry of those on temporary or non-immigrant visas, such as agriculture workers and H-2B guest workers. It also exempts EB-5 investor visas from the suspension.

Individuals who are currently in the United States with pending green card applications are also exempt from the suspension.

Trump said he signed the proclamation in order to halt the spread of the coronavirus and protect American jobs at a time of high unemployment.

For more information, contact Alexis Moch, 800-368-5242 x8407.

A recent NAHB survey of professional remodelers shows the negative effect the coronavirus pandemic is having on the decision to remodel. More than 90% of remodelers in the survey reported a slowdown in both the rate at which inquiries are coming in, and in the general willingness of home owners to remodel at this time.

While 96% of remodelers said the virus was hurting the rate at which inquiries are coming in, a full 70% characterized the negative impact on inquiries as major rather than minor.

The survey listed eight possible impacts of the coronavirus on the remodeling market. More than 80% of respondents said the virus was having a noticeable effect on:

• Home owners’ concerns about interacting with remodeling crews (86%)
• Supply of N95 respirator face masks (84%)
• Cancellations or delays of existing projects (84%)

In some respects, the impact of the coronavirus on the remodeling market mirrors what we’re seeing in the market for new homes. In both cases, the pandemic is having a number of significant adverse effects, but the strongest ones are the negative impacts on the behavior of potential customers.

NAHB Senior Economist Paul Emrath provides more details in this Eye on Housing blog post.

Sales of newly built, single-family homes fell 15.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 627,000 units in March, coming off a downward revision in February, according to newly released data by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau. The March rate is 9.5% lower than the March 2019 pace.

“Despite the sharp decline in new home sales this month, the first quarter of 2020 was actually 6.7% higher than the same period last year, reflecting a strong pace prior to the virus outbreak,” said NAHB Chairman Dean Mon. “While we expect to see some further impacts to the industry, we remain confident that housing will be a sector that will help lead the economic recovery.”

“The drop in March sales reflects buyer concerns over the virus, and was primarily concentrated in the hardest hit regions of the Northeast and West,” said NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz. “The weakening in sales is in line with our builder surveys that showed dramatic declines in buyer traffic and builder confidence in April. We expect further slowing of the pace of new home sales in April, as jobless claims continue to rise, before stabilizing later this year.”

A new home sale occurs when a sales contract is signed or a deposit is accepted. The home can be in any stage of construction: not yet started, under construction or completed. In addition to adjusting for seasonal effects, the March reading of 627,000 units is the number of homes that would sell if this pace continued for the next 12 months.

Inventory rose to a 6.4-month supply, with 333,000 new single-family homes for sale, 1.2% lower than March 2019. Of that total, just 76,000 are completed, ready to occupy. The median sales price was $321,400, compared to $310,600 one year ago.

Regionally, new home sales were down across all four regions: 41.5% lower in the Northeast, 8.1% down in the Midwest, 0.8% down in the South and 38.5% lower in the West

Although many cities have classified residential construction as an essential business, a designation that allows home building to continue during the coronavirus-induced shutdown, this designation may not be sufficient to keep construction going. To help remedy this situation, some jurisdictions have started to allow virtual inspections.

Thanks to efforts spearheaded by NAHB, the Department of Homeland Security classified residential construction as an “Essential Infrastructure Business” in its March 28 guidance.

Individual state and local governments are not required to follow the guidance; but a recent survey by NAHB shows 78% of builders report that residential construction has been classified as essential in the areas where they build.

Though construction activity is still permissible throughout much of the nation, the pandemic has slowed home building in a number of ways. It is therefore not surprising that, as shown in this recent NAHBNow post, the virus has caused nearly half of home builders to put projects on hold.

One possible bottleneck is availability and willingness of workers at the local building department to perform construction inspections. According to 2013 NAHB research, the median single-family home requires eight different inspections while it is being built, and some require 15 or more. So availability of inspectors can have a significant impact, and 82% of builders recently reported that the virus pandemic has had a noticeable, adverse effect on how long it takes the local building department to respond to a request for an inspection.

Some local building departments are attempting to alleviate this problem by allowing third-party and virtual inspections. However, the NAHB survey shows that just 4% of builders say this has started happening recently in response to the pandemic (compared to 23% who say third-party inspections were already standard operating procedure pre-virus). On the other hand, 20% of builders say their local building departments have started to allow virtual inspections recently, specifically in response to the current emergency.

NAHB Senior Economist Paul Emrath provides more analysis in this Eye on Housing blog post.