Help Save a Critical Jobs Training Program
The severe labor shortage in the construction industry is raising construction costs and harming housing affordability. NAHB’s workforce training affiliate, the Home Builders Institute, is building the next generation of skilled tradespeople and is the largest Job Corps national trades training contractor.
A House appropriations subcommittee has eliminated funding for the Job Corps program, the nation’s largest residential career training and education program. In response, NAHB is urging all residential construction industry members and supporters to contact their members of Congress and tell them to fully fund the Job Corp program. Visit builderlink.org/take-action to send a letter.
The redesigned BuilderLink portal allows members and supporters to send a letter to their congressional representative easily. The portal will be pre-populated with your information if you are signed in to nahb.org. To change the information on file to your current home address before sending a letter, visit the “My Information” page in the BuilderLink portal.
As part of the BuilderLink portal redesign, users can now access information on NAHB’s top advocacy issues. In addition, users can connect with BUILD-PAC, NAHB’s bipartisan political arm, which helps elect pro-housing, pro-business candidates to federal office.
Latest from NAHBNow
For the first time since 2022, the share of new homes with two-story foyers increased, according to the Census Bureau's Survey of Construction (SOC). Despite the increase, the market share of two-story foyers has generally trended downward since 2017, with most new single-family homes being built without a two-story foyer both nationally and regionally.
Mortgage rates rose sharply in September as multiple factors applied significant upward pressure on U.S. treasury bond yields, a key factor in mortgage rates.
Latest Economic News
Mortgage application activity declined as the 30-year fixed mortgage rate rose sharply. The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Market Composite Index, a measure of total mortgage application volume, decreased 7.7% month-over-month in September on a seasonally adjusted basis. Compared to a year ago, total mortgage applications were lower by 35.4%.
Mortgage rates rose sharply in September as multiple factors applied significant upward pressure on the U.S. treasury yields. According to Freddie Mac, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.86% in September, up nearly 20 basis points (bps) from August.
In 2025, around a quarter of new homes were built with a two-story foyer, slightly up from 2024, according to data obtained from the Census Bureau’s Survey of Construction (SOC) and tabulated by NAHB.