Few conversations shape the future of the homebuilding industry quite like those that happen in the halls of Congress. This month, Milesbrand Chief Operating Officer Kelly Fink traveled to Washington, D.C. for the 2026 NAHB Spring Leadership Meeting and Legislative Conference, held June 9 through 13 at the Grand Hyatt Washington. With more than 1,000 NAHB members descending on Capitol Hill from across the country, the event brought together a wide cross-section of industry leaders to advocate directly for policies that affect housing production, affordability and the home builders and communities Milesbrand serves every day.
Before the Hill visits began, NAHB structured two preparation sessions to ensure members arrived informed and aligned on the issues that mattered most. Fink attended both.
The first, "Ask the Lobbyists," featured NAHB's government affairs team walking members through this year's policy priorities and practical messaging guidance, with remarks from House Majority Leader Steve Scalise. Regional breakouts followed so members could align with their state colleagues before heading to their congressional meetings.
The following morning, the "Hear from the Hill" briefing brought lawmakers to the table directly, sharing their perspective on the legislative agenda for the 119th Congress. Speakers included House Financial Services Chairman French Hill, Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, Representative Veronica Escobar and Representative Nick Langworthy.
Fink made the Capitol Hill visits alongside fellow Greater Atlanta Home Builders Association and Home Builders Association of Georgia members, including Jim Chapman (NAHB Third Vice Chairman and GAHBA Past President), Corey Deal (GAHBA Executive Officer), Wayne Hiott (GAHBA President), Mike Turner (GAHBA Past President), Gabe Chatham (HBAG President and GAHBA Past President) and Wesley Ross (GAHBA Director of Government Affairs). Georgia's delegation, like every state's, arrived with a consistent and specific message for its congressional representatives.
The Legislative Conference is NAHB's most consequential lobbying event of the year, giving members the opportunity to meet one-on-one with their elected representatives and make the case for housing in direct, unambiguous terms. The core message was straightforward: the nation is short roughly 1.2 million homes, and the most effective path to easing that shortage runs directly through removing the obstacles preventing builders from building.
The affordability data framing those conversations is stark. According to NAHB materials provided at LegCon, 88 million households, representing approximately 65% of all U.S. households, cannot afford a median-priced home of $414,000. Other alarming stats:
Home prices have climbed 53% since 2019, while median household income has grown only 24% over the same period.
The median age of a first-time home buyer reached a record high of 40 in 2025, up from 29 in 1981.
Every $1,000 added to the cost of a new home, NAHB estimates, prices an additional 156,405 households out of the market entirely.
Regulation sits at the center of that affordability equation. NAHB data shows that government regulation now accounts for 26.4%, or $131,734, of the average final price of a new home priced at $499,500. Changes to building codes over the past decade represent the largest single regulatory cost driver, adding approximately $40,288 per home. Across the full cost structure, the regulatory burden breaks down across land dedication requirements, builder fees, design standards, compliance costs, zoning approvals and a range of construction-related mandates, none of which moves a single board or pours a single yard of concrete.
NAHB's legislative agenda, which shaped every Hill meeting, is organized around four concrete asks of Congress:
Landmark housing legislation. House and Senate leaders are considering a once-in-a-generation housing package that would significantly increase housing production by encouraging land use and zoning reforms, streamlining environmental reviews and instituting regulatory reforms that reduce friction at every stage of development.
Workforce development and immigration policy. The construction workforce is in crisis: a shortage of more than 200,000 workers exists today, more than 25% of the existing workforce is foreign-born and builders will need to add approximately 2.2 million new workers over the next three years to meet demand and replace an aging labor force. NAHB is urging Congress to pass the CONSTRUCTS Act and the DIGNITY Act to address these gaps.
Permitting reform. Permitting delays at all levels of government put housing projects on hold and drive up construction costs before a single wall goes up. Obtaining a federal Clean Water Act Section 404 permit, which is essential for many residential projects to move forward, currently takes upwards of one year to obtain.
Energy choice legislation. Localities across the country are restricting or banning builders from installing natural gas appliances, limiting consumer choice and adding cost to new homes at a time when affordability is already stretched. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, American households using natural gas spent approximately 42% less on heating this past winter compared to those using electricity, making fuel choice a direct affordability issue for home buyers.
Milesbrand's presence at the Legislative Conference is not incidental to what this agency does. Every policy conversation in Washington has a downstream effect on the home builders and master-planned community developers the agency partners with: regulatory cost increases translate directly to home prices, workforce shortages affect project timelines and delivery quality, and permitting delays compress the windows builders have to launch and sustain a brand's momentum in market. When policy shapes what can be built, where it can be built and at what cost, the communities Milesbrand brands are shaped by those same forces.
Participating directly in these conversations, rather than simply observing them from a distance, is part of how Milesbrand fulfills its responsibility to the industry. Legislators need to hear from practitioners, not just policy professionals, and the collective voice of more than 1,000 NAHB members advocating in person carries a different weight than any letter or report.
Beyond the legislative work, Fink also attended the National Sales and Marketing Council Board of Trustees meeting on Thursday, June 11. As a board member and current 2nd Vice Chair of the NSMC, an affiliate council of NAHB, Fink is on a leadership track that will see her serve as Chair in 2028. The NSMC is one of NAHB's most active and influential affiliate organizations, focused on advancing sales, marketing and technology excellence across the homebuilding industry.
The board meeting drew a strong turnout and covered a range of active subcommittee initiatives across Professional Development, Membership and Communications, and Awards and Recognition. Fink served as the 2025 Chair of the Membership and Communications Subcommittee and continues to be an active contributor to its ongoing work, including social media strategy and local SMC outreach calls that keep the council's regional chapters engaged and connected.
One of the session highlights was a Live Shop Talk on current market conditions, bringing together industry leaders for an open exchange on what they're seeing in their markets in terms of traffic, sales, conversion rates and home buyer objections. With market dynamics varying significantly by region right now, the conversation was rich with firsthand perspective, exactly the kind of peer intelligence that makes NSMC membership valuable.
NSMC leadership continues its engagement through monthly calls among the Chair, Vice Chair and 2nd Vice Chair, along with joint subcommittee meetings to maintain momentum between in-person gatherings. The next in-person meeting will be at the NAHB Fall Leadership meeting in Detroit, Michigan.
Milesbrand will continue to track the legislative priorities discussed during this conference and monitor their impact on the home builders, developers and master-planned community operators the agency partners with. Housing policy moves slowly, but its effects on the development landscape are profound and the advocacy done at events like this one is part of how the industry shapes what comes next.
To discuss how the current regulatory and market environment might affect your community's brand strategy, reach out to the Milesbrand team.